WATCH: How Hollywood and LA activists came together to change the course of the AIDS epidemic
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Image Credits: ‘Commitment To Life,’ Peacock/NBCUniversal
World AIDS Day was this past Friday, December 1, though the ongoing fight against AIDS—and our commemoration of the lives lost to the disease over the years—is certainly not limited to a single day.
With that in mind, a new documentary seeks to shed new light on our not-too-distant past, specifically through the lens Los Angeles in the 1980s and early ’90s, where activists and many within the entertainment industry worked to challenge misconceptions about the then-mysterious disease.
From filmmaker Jeffrey Schwarz (I Am Divine, Tab Hunter Confidential), Commitment To Life tells the story of those who devoted their lives to finding a cure for AIDS, as well as those who sought to harness the power of Hollywood for good in order to combat stereotypes and misconceptions in the media.
For example, when it was reported that screen idol Rock Hudson had contracted AIDS, he was one of the first mainstream celebrities known to have the disease. Though tragic, his death in 1985 had a near immediate impact on the visibility of HIV/AIDS and lead to greater funding for research for a cure.
Hudson’s screen partner and longtime friend, Elizabeth Taylor, even hosted the first AIDS fundraiser, benefitting the AIDS Project Los Angeles and later helped found the National AIDS Research Foundation. Thanks to her star power, Taylor reportedly helped raise over $270 million for the cause.
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These stories and more are recounted in Commitment To Life, which also acts as a time capsule for 1980s Hollywood, reflecting on how the city became such a bustling hub of LGBTQ+ life—and how that community banded together in a time of need, effectively changing the course of the epidemic.
The documentary is a blend archival footage, film and television clips, and new interviews with names like gay Hollywood mainstay Bruce Vilanch, Queer Eye‘s Karamo Brown, and Real World creator Jonathan Murray, as well as activists like tephen Bennett, Robert Contreras, and Bill Misenhimer.
Image Credit: ‘Commitment To Life,’ Peacock/NBCUniversal
Schwarz’s film premiered earlier this year at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, playing the festival circuit throughout 2023, before making its exclusive streaming premiere this past Friday on Peacock.
The LGBTQ+ health and wellness organization APLA is among the producers of the film, and its CEO Craig E. Thompson shared the following statement upon its release:
“There are now two generations of LGBTQ+ Americans that have – thankfully – little or no personal knowledge of the horrors of the AIDS epidemic. But they need to know the history; to hear the stories of the extraordinary pain and loss of those years, but also the stories of the amazing and heroic actions in response. This documentary celebrates the unique contributions of Los Angeles to this overall story.”
You can stream Commitment To Life right now on Peacock. Check out the trailer for the film below:
