"SEX IN AN EPIDEMIC"
Director: Jean Carlomusto
Trevor's Rating: 2.5 / 5 Stars
This documentary is a strange mix of things -- an attempt to throw everything about AIDS from the start to the present into one confused film. Archival footage is rarely identified, creating confusion over whether the interview you're watching was conducted by the filmmaker or was just rescued from the annals of history.
Indeed, this is one of those films that is well intentioned but poorly executed. There is plenty of interested archival footage, but it is stitched together weakly without a strong narrative structure. Unlike We Were Here, this film lacks the kind of clear focus and narrow scope that made that film so powerful. It pretends to be telling a national HIV story, but it's really about New York City. What happened there did not happen in San Francisco, and those differences go unspoken in the film but were clear. ACT UP happened in New York for a reason, but we don't hear about that because the film has no concept of its geographic specificity.
This film will be a resource for those looking for archival footage, and a random array of interesting but vaguely related facts. Here's a trailer:
You need to do your homework before falsely accusing anyone of plagiarism. I have been working in HIV prevention since 1987. The interviews I shot with Richard Berkowitz and Joe Sonnabend were done in 1997, about 10 years before SEX POSITIVE. Daryl Wein knew I was making SEX IN AN EPIDEMIC when he made his film. In fact he contacted me to see if he could use my footage when he was in production. All interviews and archival material in the film- except when credited otherwise- where shot by me. Whether you like the film or not is your business, but to slander me , a lesbian who has spent over 20 years documenting the struggle to end the HIV/AIDS pandemic is an ignorant injustice. Jean Carlomusto
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You need to do your homework before falsely accusing anyone of plagiarism. I have been working in HIV prevention since 1987. The interviews I shot with Richard Berkowitz and Joe Sonnabend were done in 1997, about 10 years before SEX POSITIVE. Daryl Wein knew I was making SEX IN AN EPIDEMIC when he made his film. In fact he contacted me to see if he could use my footage when he was in production. All interviews and archival material in the film- except when credited otherwise- where shot by me. Whether you like the film or not is your business, but to slander me , a lesbian who has spent over 20 years documenting the struggle to end the HIV/AIDS pandemic is an ignorant injustice. Jean Carlomusto
Disregard my previous entry as TH has removed his uninformed and unfounded accusations of plagiarism.