Expression = Life: ACT UP, video, and the AIDS crisisThis 2-Disc video set includes a critical "reading" of Ronald Reagan's infamous 1987 speech to the American Pharmaceutical Industry, in which he finally acknowledged the AIDS crisis, six years into the epidemic. Angry Initiatives, Defiant Strategies: John Greyson produced this survey of the American gay community's response to the AIDS crisis. Be a DIVA/Like a Prayer: Designed as a rebuke and corrective to the mainstream media's distortion of the AIDS crisis, Be a DIVA is the first production of DIVA TV, an ACT UP affinity group composed primarily of lesbian filmmakers, including Ellen Spiro, Catherine Gund, and Jean Carlomusto. Like a Prayer documents the landmark 1989 "Stop the Church" demonstration at St. Patrick's Cathedral, spearheaded by ACT UP and WHAM! (Women's Health Action and Mobilization.) Target: City Hall: DIVA-TV's coverage of one of ACT UP's most potent street protests in New York City.
The 2nd disc includes, Expression = Life and Panel, as well as material from Book of James. and many original ACT UP members- examining the roots of ACT UP, the state of AIDS activism in the present day, and the role of media- both mainstream and movement-generated- in the successes and frustrations of social movements.