Pills Profits Protest (2003)

• 70%
• 2003
• Documentary
• Anne-Christine d'Adesky
• Ann T. Rossetti

"Pills Profits Protest" is an up-to-the minute documentary about global AIDS treatment activism. It examines the national and international grass roots response to an epidemic that has already overshadowed the Black Death in terms of human lives lost. The demand for access to affordable treatment for 40 million people living with HIV, most of whom live in poor countries, represents one of the most successful political movements of contemporary history. This documentary examines critical junctures in the battle for access to HIV treatment as the poorest and most marginalized individuals confront larger powers, including governments, corporate bodies and a multinational drug industry that is motivated by profit. The fight for AIDS drugs is taking place in tandem with a growing anti-globalization movement; the latter provides a backdrop for examining AIDS through a lens of poverty, socioeconomic injustice and human rights. At the heart of this documentary is a thorny question: Can the world afford universal HIV treatment? At what cost? What will be the global cost if we fail to treat and save 40 million people now? Pills, Profits and Protest are the three thematic touchstones of our film, each reflecting an important aspect of the current battle. Behind this movement are people, personalities and lives. Our film weaves their personal stories with a larger chronicle of history-in-the-making.