The Other Side of AIDS

Infobox_Film
name = The Other Side of AIDS


caption =
director = Robin Scovill
producer = Robert Leppo
Eric E. Paulson
Robin Scovill
writer = Robin Scovill
narrator =
starring =
music =
cinematography = Robin Scovill
editing = Robin Scovill
distributor = Hazel Wood Pictures
released = Canada:
September 26 2004
United States:
October 10 2004
Argentina:
April 13 2005
Brazil:
November 12 2005
runtime = 87 minutes
country = United States
language = English
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0427614 |

"The Other Side of AIDS" is a 2004 documentary film by AIDS denialist Robin Scovill. Through interviews with prominent AIDS denialists and HIV-positive people who claim not to be taking medications, the film makes the case that HIV is not the cause of AIDS and that anti-HIV medications are harmful, conclusions which are rejected by medical and scientific consensus. [ [http://www.niaid.nih.gov/Factsheets/evidhiv.htm The Evidence that HIV Causes AIDS] : a fact sheet from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. Accessed 29 September 2008.] The film was reviewed in "Variety" and "The Hollywood Reporter" in 2004, and received additional attention in 2005, when Scovill's three-year-old daughter died of untreated AIDS.

"The Other Side of AIDS" was shown at the AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival in 2004, where it received "special mention" in the International Documentary category.cite news|title=A Mother’s Denial, a Daughter’s Death|publisher="Los Angeles Times"|author=Charles Ornstein and Daniel Costello|accessdate=2008-09-25|date=2005-09-24|url=http://articles.latimes.com/2005/sep/24/local/me-eliza24] [cite web |url= http://afifest.studiosystem.com/browse_winners.aspx |title= AFI Awards Listing|accessdate=2008-09-25 |publisher= American Film Institute] The film had its international premiere at the 2004 Vancouver International Film Festival, [cite web|url=http://www.viff.org/tixSYS/filmguide2004/eventnote.php?EventNumber=1837|title=VIFF Listing|publisher=Vancouver International Film Festival|accessdate=2008-09-25] and also played at the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema in Argentina (Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente).

Background/Production

The interviewees in "The Other Side of AIDS" include Peter Duesberg, a professor "whose stock in the scientific community declined sharply once he began second-guessing the role of HIV" in AIDS, and Christine Maggiore, whose organisation "militates against HIV drug treatments."cite web|url=http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117924237.html?categoryid=31&cs=1|author=Ronnie Scheib|publisher="Variety"|title=Review: The Other Side of AIDS|date=2004-06-28|accessdate=2008-09-25] "Variety" notes that Maggiore is the wife of the director/producer, a fact the film omits. In addition to these two prominent AIDS denialists, the documentary features several HIV-positive people who claim that they do not take medications. Along with Maggiore, they blame AIDS deaths in part on negative thinking by victims, a "fatalism" they say is encouraged by support groups.cite news
last = Carmichael
first = Amy
coauthors =
title = Documentary challenging idea HIV causes AIDS airs; support falls for annual walk
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = Canadian Press
date = 2004-09-25
url = http://aol.mediresource.com/channel_health_news_details.asp?news_id=4865&channel_id=16
accessdate = 2008-09-25] Several also blame AIDS on the "gay lifestyle".

The film does not make a substantial attempt to balance the beliefs of AIDS denialists with mainstream medical viewpoints on HIV/AIDS. [http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/film/reviews/article_display.jsp?rid=1946 The Hollywood Reporter review] , Kirk Honeycutt, November 12 2004] Although two AIDS researchers are interviewed, both reviews of the film remark that these representatives seem to have been cast specifically to portray researchers in a negative light. "Variety" refers to the two as "fanatics", people chosen by Scovill because their displayed emotions outweigh their "perfectly rational" arguments. AIDS Researcher Julio Montanner, interviewed around the film's Vancouver premiere, said that such emotion comes from fear for patients who may take the film's arguments seriously: "The success of the drugs depends to a high degree on the commitment of the patient to take the medication properly."

The executive producer of "The Other Side of AIDS" was Robert Leppo, a venture capitalist who has also funded the activities of well-known AIDS denialist Peter Duesberg. [cite news
last = Krieger
first = Lisa
coauthors =
title = Berkeley Biologist Back in Spotlight
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = "San Jose Mercury News"
date = 2004-01-27
url =
accessdate = ]

Critical Reception

"The Other Side of AIDS" was reviewed in "Variety" and, briefly, in "The Hollywood Reporter".

"Variety" admired the "explosively controversial docu" for "cannily" making the viewer "root for the underdog" by contrasting a long line of sympathetic AIDS denialists with two angry researchers. The review says the strongest argument in the film is an emotional allegation that the government forcibly takes children from HIV-positive parents in the United States, while the weakest point is its tendency to "place the blame [for the AIDS epidemic] exclusively on homosexual behavior."

"The Hollywood Reporter" states that the film is "a substantial contribution to the international debate about the AIDS epidemic", but faults it for being technically "pedestrian", composed mostly of "talking heads and printed information onscreen".

Controversy

In the documentary, Scovill's wife Christine Maggiore, who is HIV-positive, claimed that she and her two children are healthy despite not taking anti-HIV medications. Subsequently, in 2005, Maggiore's and Scovill's three-year-old daughter, Eliza Jane, died of AIDS, having never been tested or treated for it.

References

External links

* [http://www.theothersideofaids.com/ Official site]
*imdb title|0427614|The Other Side of AIDS