A Queer Film Classic on John Greyson's controversial 1993 film
musical about the AIDS crisis which combines experimental, camp
musical, and documentary aesthetics while refuting the legend of
Patient Zero, the male flight attendant accused in Randy Shilts?
book "And the Band Played On" of bringing the AIDS crisis to North
America. The film features the explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton,
who is working as a taxidermist at the Museum of Natural History in
Toronto; seeking exhibits for his Hall of Contagion, Burton
encounters the ghost of Patient Zero, and together, they set out to
try to discover the truth about the origin of AIDS and restore Zero
to life.
This book provides a guided tour of the film, looking at its
engagement with both biomedical and populist discourses around AIDS
in its first decade and with the political work undertaken by the
queer community to provide support for HIV+ people and treatment
for those with AIDS. It also delves into how Greyson, one of the
most important figures in New Queer Cinema, combined experimental
film aesthetics with a camp take on Hollywood genre films (both
musical and horror) and the Canadian documentary film tradition
while at the same time responding to Shilts? book and other
discourses focused on placing blame for the AIDS crisis on an
individual and a community.
Arsenal's Queer Film Classics series cover some of the most
important and influential films about and by LGBTQ people.
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