Absolutely Positive

Noted documentarian Peter Adair's award-winning 1991 film chronicles the thoughts and lives of 11 disparate persons living with HIV disease. Alternately touching, sobering, and sometimes even heartbreaking, the interviewees are nonetheless always enlightening, and ultimately inspirational, as they discuss the challenges facing them with hard-won wisdom, insight, and courage. A very effective testament to the resiliency of humanity, the original film is leant added poignancy through a "where are they now in 2003?" follow-up segment that discloses not only the fates of the 11 participants, but the film's director as well. The DVD also includes a short biographical segment on Adair, and features excellent video and sound quality throughout. Highly recommended to general audiences, and a particular "must see" for people affected by and infected with HIV, as well as those who care for and serve them.

`Absolutely Positive' examines the lives of 11 different men and women from all walks of life. They are heterosexual and homosexual, of diverse races and ages, and they all have the HIV virus. It doesn't make them different or threatening or any less important than you or I and their stories are all meaningful, sometimes heartbreaking, and ultimately inspirational.

In a world today where there is still far too much reluctance to openly discuss HIV and AIDS issues, these individuals courageously reveal private aspects of their lives regarding how they contracted this disease to include unprotected sex, intravenous drug use, multiple partners, and medical errors. From an emotional point of view, their feelings run from anger to fear to shame to guilt to denial but instead of making excuses or placing blame, they instead hold their heads high and retain an optimistic outlook no matter what the odds against them. An integral part of everyday life, relationships and families, are also affected when loved ones have HIV and these perspectives are shared also.

This diverse group of people each understands the uncertainties in their future but they also exhibit an infectious desire to conquer any obstacles they face and to make the most out of every new day. I found this attitude very admirable and appealing especially considering what they are all living with.

Nothing but 5 stars for this well produced and presented documentary. It has quite a few nice extras to compliment the main body of work and I recommend this fine program to everyone. For a thorough and outstanding look at the AIDS crisis over the last 25 years, I highly suggest watching `Frontline: The Age of AIDS' as a companion to this feature.

This movie, although dated, is incredible. Real stories from real people living with HIV. The director/narrator does a great job of weaving the stories together. The people are believable and their stories are compelling. The only flaw to this is that it is not closed captioned for the hearing impaired, which was the only reason I wasn't able to use this in my class on HIV/AIDS at Gallaudet University.