The enraging story told in Dallas Buyers Club is not over yet
With three Oscars at Sunday night’s Academy Awards, the critically acclaimed Dallas Buyers Club continues to shine important light on one of the darkest chapters in American history: the deliberate suppression of desperately needed AIDS drugs by the pharmaceutical industry and the FDA while millions of Americans lay dying in the 1980s.
Now, as this largely forgotten history moves into the national spotlight, we want to call your attention to the award-winning film Fire in the Blood — a stunning documentary that reveals how this same story has been playing out to devastating effect on a global scale.
One of the best-reviewed documentaries of 2013 according to the aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, Fire in the Blood details how pharmaceutical companies have been using patent law since the 1990s to block access to affordable AIDS drugs in Africa and the global south — directly leading to the deaths of millions more people.
It also introduces us to a number of remarkable people who, like Ron Woodroof in Dallas Buyers Club, have refused to bow down to intimidation and threats, risking their lives to smuggle effective low-cost medications into their countries and saving countless lives in the process.
The result is a riveting and enraging portrait of predatory capitalism, and an inspiring look at the capacity of ordinary people to make transformative change on a global scale.
Featuring Bill Clinton, Desmond Tutu, Joseph Stiglitz, and others.
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Extremely moving … a powerful documentary that demands to be seen by as wide an audience as possible.
David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
★★★★ (4 stars). Incisive and damning. The film is utterly absorbing and impossible to forget.
Jeremy Aspinall, BBC RADIO TIMES
★★★★ (4 stars) — CRITIC’S CHOICE.
Kate Muir, The Times
The one film that I’d put to the top of your must-see list is Fire in the Blood … you will be moved and enraged … a beautiful film to watch.
Tom Roston, PBS Doc Soup
PICK OF THE WEEK — A devastating new film explores the lies, greed and indifference that killed millions in Africa.
Andrew O'Hehir, Salon
★★★★ (4 stars). A film to provoke fury … it’s the arrogance and greed of the drug tycoons that leaves a lingering impression, as they conspired to allow ten million to die simply so that they could maximise their profits.
David Parkinson, Empire
Brilliant … a real-life David and Goliath story … an amazing documentary and a story that really needed to be told.
Zoe Ball, BBC Radio
Moving documentary on an urgent and shameful subject.
Miriam Bale, The New York Times
You may also be interested in these other MEF films:
Protection
An eye-opening exploration of what it will take to make real and transformative change and eradicate HIV/AIDS once and for all. More…
Big Bucks, Big Pharma
Pulls back the curtain on slick prescription drug ads to expose how the multibillion dollar pharmaceutical industry uses, manipulates, and invents illnesses to maximize profits. More…
This Land is Our Land
A powerful film that shows how commercial interests are undermining our collective interests, and how a bold new global movement is working to reclaim the commons. More…
