Lessons on surviving a pandemic from 35 years of AIDS cinema

Abstract

Global transformation demanded by the COVID-19 pandemic prompts consideration of how prior epidemics have contributed to and continue to shape our cultural and sociological understandings of health care and patients. Documentaries and cinematic narratives have charted the 1980s AIDS epidemic in the United States, and this article traces a historical arc of that crisis, contrasts historical (HIV) and current (SARS-CoV-2) contagion experiences, and reviews thematic representations of AIDS and COVID-19 experiences among vulnerable patients and populations.