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Pills, Profits, Protest. Chronicle of the Global AIDS Movement cover image

Pills, Profits, Protest. Chronicle of the Global AIDS Movement 2005

Recommended

Distributed by Outcast Films, PO Box 260, New York, NY 10032; 917-521-2498
Produced by Anne-christine d'Adesky, Shanti Avirgan and Ann T. Rossetti
Directed by Anne-christine d'Adesky, Shanti Avirgan, and Ann T. Rossetti
DVD, color, 60 min.



College - Adult
Health Sciences, Human Rights, Sociology

Date Entered: 04/21/2006

Reviewed by Lori Widzinski, Health Sciences Library, University at Buffalo, State University of New York

Pills, Profits, Protest confronts the politically and economically thorny issues entwined in the quest to make HIV/AIDS drugs available to everyone who needs them on the planet. It is, indeed, as the title states, a chronicle of the activist movements, focusing on Africa, India, the U.S., Haiti and Brazil. Scenes of peaceful demonstrations around the globe are interspersed with interviews with key activists involved in the fight for affordable healthcare for HIV/AIDS sufferers.

Outside of a few carefully selected scenes of a pharmaceutical company spokesman, this film presents the activists side of the issue. There is an attempt at balance by including a reporter from the New York Times, but this is foremost a document of an activist movement. It is an intimate look at how grass-roots activism can ignite a much wider audience into action, and the power that it can generate. In addition, it profiles the important move by the Brazilian government in 1996 to create a model of free prevention and treatment options for AIDS/HIV patients in that country, and the involvement of Indian generic drug manufacturers to sidestep the large multinational pharmaceutical corporations.

This is a highly complicated, emotional, social and political issue, and d’Adesky, Avirgan, and Rosetti have done an admirable job of compiling a chronological view of the growing AIDS/HIV movements. In the classroom, it would be best suited to those exploring the issue of the HIV/AIDS activist movement, public health courses, and those involved with the social and human rights views of healthcare. The DVD also includes bonus interviews with several leaders in AIDS/HIV awareness: Paul Farmer, Mercy Makhalemele, Milly Katana, Keith Cylar, and Evan Ruderman. Pills, Profits, Protest is a sobering look at corporate controllers of healthcare, and provides a tool to educate and galvanize those who want to contribute to the cause. Recommended.