Killing Patient Zero

On the fence about this doc? Skip to 50:36 and watch the incredibly uncomfortable press conference from the Reagan White House. The astonishingly cavalier approach to the crisis that was exploding across the globe is shocking.

If you watch a few minutes of that press conference, I think most of you will want to start at the beginning and watch it all the way through. I have seen my fair share of documentaries that try to capture the fear and the ignorance that occurred in the light of the HIV crisis. But I have never seen one that captures it in the way that this very fine film does. Even though it was almost 2 hours long, it flew by.

There are so many films, articles, photos, plays, and books about the AIDS Crisis and LGBTQ rights in America. Content like "Angels in America" (Tony Kushner), "How to Survive a Plague" (2012), "And the Band Played On" (1987) - to name a few - are important parts of queer history and remembering the individuals impacted by HIV & AIDS.

But there is 1 character who continuously appears time and time again, regardless of the medium - a kind of gay boogieman: the ominous Patient Zero. Whether you know him as "The Man Who Gave Us AIDS" (NY Post) or the "first case" of AIDS in the US" this man has a name - Gaetan Dugas - and a story. Not the airline steward who brought AIDS to America; not the man who spread the infection and its suffering far and wide; not the man who started it all. The boogieman - Patient Zero - was innocent. Not only that but Gaetan Dugas was a gay hero who helped save countless lives. Don't believe me? Ask the experts.

Killing Patient Zero features Dr. Marcus Conant, Dr. James W. Curran, Dr. William Darrow and Dr. Harold Jaffe from the CDC, Dr. Selma Dritz, Richard Berkowitz, journalist Lawrence Mass, Fran Lebowitz, and many others including Gaetan's friends and coworkers. Along with the writers, director, and film crew, they come together to 'kill' once and for all the myth that HIV & AIDS have a singular point or one man to blame. "Killing Patient Zero" gives important clarification and context to the cluster study, the motivations behind journalism & "And the Band Plays On," and explains how a few misunderstandings (and the desperation of the time) influenced how we write about and understand HIV/AIDS. Most importantly, it posthumously exonerates Gaetan, whose transparency and enthusiastic cooperation gave us the tools to deal with HIV/AIDS.

HOWEVER, as significant as the documentary is, there are a couple downsides. The main critiques are (1) it perpetuates the myth that gay men were the only ones who were affected by & died from AIDS (2) it's a talking heads doc with interspersed photos and archive footage. The topic is profound and the speakers are key players, but where it highlights Gaetan & rehabilitates his image, it is also saddening that these same experts forget & erase the countless women and trans folks who died & who are still fighting for recognition and memorials - to have their names and stories shouted loud enough to be cemented in queer history & to have their own justice.

As only three people have reviewed this documentary so far, I thought it would good to give my twopence. I have been very much in doubt how to rate it. I agree with "laragi" that documentaries that mostly consist of interviews are boring. From this point of view it is not a good film. Nevertheless it was the theme - the myth of Patient Zero - that interested me. AIDS came up shortly after I had my coming-out and I remember how frightening the whole situation was and how it affected my life and those of other gay men.

And of course one of the most intriguing stories was "Patient Zero" - the French Canadian air steward who spread the illness over North America. I heard the name "Gaetan Dugas" only much later. It is ironic that it was someone with good intentions who spread the myth. Randy Shilts did a great job to make society aware of the importance of AIDS. I have not read his book "And the band played on", but I saw the film based on it. Although Shilts stresses that he didn't want to make Dugas into the scapegoat for AIDS, this is exactly what happened. It is simply this kind of stories that people want to hear: "the man who was responsible for AIDS".

"Killing Patient Zero" does indeed debunk the myth that Gaetan Dugas was the one who was responsible for the spread of AIDS. Ironically it was his willingness to help the researchers that put him in that position. Because he gave many names of his sexual partners they were able to draw clusters. Very small misunderstandings can have deep consequences. He was named Patient O with the letter "O" for "Out of California". But the O was misread for a zero.

On the other hand I can't say that the film rehabilitates Dugas. He might not have been "the man who spread AIDS", but there is still that other very negative story that although he knew he was ill and would probably die he simply kept on having sex with many men and accepted that they might get sick and die too.

During the film his former colleagues and his friends keep on telling what a great guy he was. I do not doubt that he was charming and a brave guy who didn't hide that he was gay. But during the only scene in the film in which he appears in person, Dugas doesn't make a very sympathetic impression on me. In 1983 an AIDS Forum took place in Vancouver. The panel members were honest to say that they did not know for sure how it spread, but still they gave the advice to "decrease the number of sexual partners".

Dugas took a lively part in the discussion and kept on bombing the participants with his questions. As long as they were not 100 % sure they should not give any advice to people. One panel member recalls to have said to another. "We need might to get him of the microphone soon or he might destroy everything we reached over the last hours with his questions." Also other fragments prove that he simply ignored warnings not to spread the decease.

Nevertheless the film is definitely worth watching if you are interested in the theme. It does give a good view of the situation gays were in at the time, the beginnings of AIDS and the whole controversy about Gaetan Dugas.

I hate documentaries that are 90 percent talking heads. Why waste your time? If you're going to uncover a topic, get footage, pictures, etc.

... probably too much background on gay life/culture/politics prior to the AIDS outbreak in North America. At times you wouldn't know the documentary was about Patient Zero. Other than that the documentary does an superb job in debunking the Patient Zero myth.