Testing the Limits: NYC

Testing the Limits: NYC
Year
1987
Minutes
30
Film Location
New York, NY
Credits/Bios
Gregg Bordowitz
Jean Carlomusto
Sandra Elgear
Robyn Hutt
Hillary Joy Kipnis
David Meieran
Testing The Limits Collective

In 1987, AIDS activists criticized President Ronald Reagan’s administration for its gross mismanagement of the AIDS crisis. Militant activist groups took to New York City streets to denounce mandatory testing as a discriminatory practice, demanding more HIV/AIDS research and educational initiatives.  They chanted "Test drugs, not people" and "Educate, don't isolate." The Testing the Limits Collective shot video footage documenting AIDS activism such as demonstrations by ACT UP New York. This powerful video details how community activists, health workers, drug rehabilitation counselors and local political figures waged a fierce, determined war against AIDS. The statistics presented in the video are alarming. However, the footage of people demonstrating against mandatory testing, demanding government funding for testing new drugs, teaching drug addicts to clean their "works" with alcohol and bleach kits, educating teenagers on safe sex, and applying alternative therapies for people with AIDS are not only uplifting but empowering.