Film about 1980s "Gay Cancer Epimic" sheds light on LGBT rights 2016
Contents:
REMEMBERG THE EARLY DAYS OF 'GAY CANCER'
The first London productn of the Larry Kramer play sce 1986 ptur the fear and anger the gay muny of that – and s heartbreakg personal loss * the normal heart gay cancer *
Almost every character the play and film is based on a real person volved wh Kramer's earlit AIDS activism, cludg some of the six whe gay men who found GMHC. Whe gay men were certaly the largt mographic early on, but by 1983 the CDC had reported 3, 000 s, wh 1, 283 aths. A 1989 survey of 500 ACT UP New York members (Gilbert Elbaz, 1992) showed that 80 percent were gay whe men.
Larry Kramer’s tobgraphil play, wrten at the time of what many lled the “gay plague” New York, shows how the parallels are c and mensurate.
” Nohels, this is a ronant moment to revive Kramer’s poignant and cendiary drama about the polics and prejudice around fect disease, as well as gay love and productn – the first London sce s European premiere at the Royal Court 1986 – be a paful rerd of all the ways which a prejudiced tablishment shut s ey and ears to the epimic. Its story spans four years the early 80s and tak si a gay health advocy group led by the terrier-like Ned Weeks (based on Kramer himself), whose members mpaigned as a generatn of young gay men died around them.
‘THE NORMAL HEART’ AND THE MORALY OF BEG GAY
Commentator Joe Wright spent more than 10 years dog AIDS muny work San Francis. He says that back 1981 and '82, before AIDS was lled AIDS, was lled "gay ncer." At the time, ncer was the most dread disease the Uned Stat. But for some of the men who had the myster new illns, llg "ncer" was a form of hope. Joe Wright is a stunt at Harvard Medil School. * the normal heart gay cancer *
Weeks (Ben Daniels – passnate, pugnac) is the -founr of the advocy group, whose flammatory ias and learship style lead him to be oted, while the head of the group, Bce Nil (fely played by Le Norris), is his oppose – a closeted banker lghg along wh his boss’s homophobic jok but hopg to brg change om the Carr and Daniels The Normal Heart. Robert Bowman as Ned’s olr brother, Ben, giv a strong performance spe a sometim wobbly Amerin accent, and the brothers’ exchang on life choic are a plex mix of love, shame, anger and quiet homophobia on the part of Normal Heart has s static or dogmatic moments wh angry speech layg out polil or iologil posns, but there are also rich and plex discsns, pecially the bate on love and sex.
Most often, is reported cints of ath and illns that brg the human drama and emotnal hs: characters speak of mothers disverg their sons are gay on their athbeds.