Killing Patient Zero – 4:00pm

Killing Patient Zero

Written and Directed by: Laurie Lynd
Documentary | 14A for mature thematics | 100 min. | Canada

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SCREENING:
Sunday, October 20 – 4:00 pm [Q&A]
Tuesday, October 22 – 4:30 pm

GUEST Q&A | Oct 20, 4:00 pm

Laurie Lynd is a Directors Guild of Canada and Genie award winning writer/director whose film work has been screened at dozens of international film festivals, including SUNDANCE, TIFF and MOMA’s New Directors/New Films; his television work has aired on BBC, Sky TV, Logo, Showtime, Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, CBC, CTV, CITY, A&E, Discovery and many other networks.

“Lynd has restored Dugas to imperfect flesh and blood. That is achievement enough.” – Stephen Rodrick, Globe and Mail

“An exposé of a long ago “fake news” story, and an uncomfortable reminder of an uncomfortable era. AIDS may now be treatable, but the fire of ignorance and moral judgment are still in our social DNA.” – Jim Slotek, Original Cin

After the Stonewall riots and at the height of the gay liberation movement in America, an entire generation busy celebrating its newfound emancipation was unaware of an impending epidemic – a disease that proved to be largely ignored by politicians and the mainstream media. Gaetan Dugas was a French-Canadian flight attendant who offered to help early scientific research into the origins of this new disease but an unfortunate series of events followed, and he would eventually be vilified as Patient Zero, the man who gave society AIDS. Based on Richard McKay’s groundbreaking book, Patient Zero and the Making of the AIDS Epidemic, this feature documentary clears Dugas of being anything other than a highly sexually active gay man, someone who – like hundreds of other gay men – refused to be re-pathologized by the scientists and doctors of the time. Many gay men and women who lived through that terrible time were also interviewed here, most notably, Fran Lebowitz.

NOMINATED – Audience Award, Best Documentary, Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, 2019