''When AIDS Was Funny'' is a 2015
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies.
* British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...
short documentary film by Scott Calonico.
Summary
The film plays controversial audio of the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...
's acting press spokesman,
Larry Speakes
Larry Melvin Speakes (September 13, 1939 – January 10, 2014) was an American journalist and spokesperson who acted as White House Press Secretary under President Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1987. He assumed the role after Press Secretary James ...
, responding to questions by making
homophobic
Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who identify or are perceived as being lesbian, Gay men, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred, or ant ...
jokes on the escalating AIDS epidemic by journalist
Lester Kinsolving.
Background
The audio recordings are from several of the Reagan administration's press conferences in the 1980s. The audio is juxtaposed with images of AIDS patients at Seattle's
Bailey-Boushay House in the 1990s.
1982 exchange
The controversial dismissal of the growing AIDS epidemic is heard in the film through a series of press conferences in the 1980s, such as this 1982 exchange between Speakes and Kinsolving:
[Eilperin, Juliette (December 4, 2013]
"How attitudes toward AIDS have changed, in the White House and beyond."
''Washington Post.'' (Retrieved 7-7-2014.)
References
{{Reflist
External links
''When AIDS Was Funny'' on IMDbThe entire film on Vanity Fair's official YouTube channel
2015 short documentary films
HIV/AIDS in British films
British collage films
2015 films
British short documentary films
Films set in the 1980s
British LGBTQ-related short films
British LGBTQ-related documentary films
2015 LGBTQ-related films