and obituaries became daily required reading. For all my long dialogues and occasional harangues on gay rights and education about HIV, no one had ever asked me such incisive questions--matters that required a deeply personal response instead of my usual strident advocacy of a particular enlightened public policy. The documentary is not quite finished, but it’s meant to reveal a new look and many points of view about what it’s like to be an older gay man with HIV in Palm Springs and it seems, just getting older with it in general. It will join a growing list of films, such as How to Survive a Plague, The Lazarus Effect and We Were Here, all of which chronicle how our communities have fought fear, prejudice and sheer ignorance to find a way to live as best we can with a disease no one could ever have imagined when we were young. It’s important to note that these films are true to the grim events that happened and are grittily realistic, but they do not conclude in despair and resignation. On the contrary, they are an eloquent and graphic way to celebrate our survival with the rest of the world.
They tell not only our stories, but also maybe some others that never got the chance to be told. For info on Desert Migration, visit www.facebook.com/DesertMigration
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