In the 1980s and ‘90s, as AIDS ravaged the gay community in San Francisco and other cities across the United States, the AIDS Memorial Quilt was born out of a public battle for treatment and understanding. This documentary traces the quilt’s history as an international art project and the role it continues to play as a response to a disease that still imperils vulnerable communities around the world. From its early days in a storefront on Market Street to its widely publicized journey to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the quilt grew from a makeshift memorial into a national symbol. It came to represent the scope of the impact that AIDS was having on American society. It also served as a call to action to care for those affected by the disease and to devote research and resources to combating it. Featuring archival footage and extensive interviews with the project’s founder, Cleve Jones, as well as other early volunteers and panel-makers, the film takes a poignant look at this seminal chapter of the campaign for awareness of HIV/AIDS well beyond the gay community.

Though there has been no shortage of documentaries turning a lens on the beginnings of the AIDS epidemic, director Nadine Licostie broadens the scope in this examination of the past—and the lesser-acknowledged present—of this ravaging disease to ask a question: How are we still diagnosing people at alarming rates?

— Michael LoPresti

AT&T Audience Award Text Voting Code: D315

Co-presented by:

AIDS Emergency Fund

AIDS Healthcare Foundation

AIDS Housing Alliance

Derek Silva Community

GLBT Historical Society

HIV Nightline

National AIDS Memorial Grove