Sex in an Epidemic

Directed by Jean Carlomusto

SEX IN AN EPIDEMIC is a pioneering documentary that explores the personal, political and structural challenges that have continually hampered the best efforts of HIV educators and community groups to curb HIV infection rates in the United States. It is a compelling history of the devastating early days of the epidemic in NYC, when men with "GRID" were a stigmatized population that died swiftly of a terrifying new disease. Few concepts have had as great an impact on sexuality over the past 28 years as that of "safer sex." Yet, as a concept, it is important to remember two things: first, safer sex had to be invented amidst an alarming lack of information that existed before the discovery of HIV in 1984; and second, safer sex as a concept had to be sold by the persistent and creative persuasion of community based groups all across the country.