Around the year 1981 AIDS was clinically observed in the USA. Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired deficiency syndrome is a disease that already counts as many of 36.7 million people infected and living with the disease. This subject it's been covered in plays, TV shows, and films.
Dallas Buyer Club, Philadelphia, Longtime Companion, Rent, Savage Nights, Milk and the TV show Angels in America. Most of this films talk about a specific character been ill, but the subject of activism to bring attention to the disease is perfectly portrayed in the French film 120BPM (Beats per Minute)
Director Robin Campino tells the story of ACT UP movement in Paris in the year 1990. 120BPM (Beats per Minute) presents the members of ACT UP protesting in a government presentation which ends wrong when one of the members of the group attack a politician with a water balloon filled with fake blood. The accounts of these events are told from several points of view in flashback mode, this drives the audience to understand that the groups work together, but there is a conflict of emotions while operating. ACT UP next protest is inside the office of Melton Pharma a company responsible for making clinical trials of HIV patients. The groups infiltrate inside the offices, throwing fake blood destroying private property demanding the release of these results. During one of the meetings, the plot of the film shifts to the story of Sean (Nahuel Pérez) and Nathan (Arnaud Valois)
Robin Campino has the complicated task of making a movie about AIDS and homosexuality without falling into the clitchés of a dramatic narrative from the very beginning. The film is driven by actions, by certain violence need it for a social movement who needs to be heard by the government. Campino also explores the joy and the positive side of have AIDS and how these people embrace this new stage in their lives. The film is powerful and becomes a great document about the fight against AIDS and how you fight it on the streets and classrooms by telling people to protect themselves without any tabú.