United in Anger: The History of ACT UP

Sun, Dec 2, 2012

Jim Hubbard, Filmmaker and activist
In conversation with Patrick McCreery, New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, and Mabel Wilson, Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP)

ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) is the pioneering grassroots organization at the forefront of the AIDS activist movement in the 80s and 90s that used direct action politics to bring the crisis to public consciousness. Combining civil disobedience, performance art, and savvy media instincts, ACT UP set the template for staging provocative actions and for transforming governmental and corporate space into sites for social change. The group has been cited as a key influence in the global justice movement, recent anti-war protests, and the current Occupy Wall Street movement. This year marks the 25th anniversary of ACT UP’s first action on Wall Street in March 1987. United in Anger: A History of ACT UP (2012) is a feature documentary that presents the story of the organization, from its inception at the LGBT Community Center in the West Village under Larry Kramer’s guidance, to the planning and execution of key actions, such as the Stop the Church demonstration at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1989, in which some 5,000 participants interrupted Cardinal O’Conner’s Sunday Mass in support of AIDS education, gay civil rights and women’s reproductive rights.

 

Following the screening, there will be a conversation on activism and urban space with director Jim Hubbard, designer and historian Mabel Wilson, GSAPP, and Patrick McCreery, whose work explores the culture of politics and sexuality and family life.

 

Co-sponsored by Visual AIDS and Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation

 

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