ABOUT THE FILM

LOGLINE

Against a rich Hollywood backdrop, COMMITMENT TO LIFE documents the true story of the fight against HIV/AIDS in Los Angeles—and how an intrepid group of people living with HIV/AIDS, doctors, movie stars, studio moguls and activists changed the course of the epidemic.

LONG SYNOPSIS

In the early 1980s, a young doctor at UCLA reports a strange immune disorder among gay men—the world’s first warning sign of the epidemic to come. In the decades that followed, Los Angeles would play a critical role in the battle against HIV/AIDS as doctors, movie stars, studio moguls and activists came together to change the path of the epidemic and how the world saw it. COMMITMENT TO LIFE documents this incredible drama—Rock Hudson and Easy-E, Elizabeth Taylor and David Geffen, the Red Ribbon and Philadelphia, ACT UP and APLA—through the stories of those who lived through it. Using first-person interviews, rare archival and activist footage, and scenes from star-studded Hollywood fundraisers, COMMITMENT TO LIFE resurrects one of the epidemic’s most compelling histories—in order that we never repeat it.

Director Jeffrey Schwarz

Producers Jeffrey Schwarz, Aimée Flaherty

Executive Producer Ron Sylvester

Co-Producer Taki Oldham

Editor Jeffrey Schwarz

Music Allyson Newman, with the participation of Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles

Cast Jewel Thais-Williams, Phill Wilson, Karamo Brown, Bruce Vilanch, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Robert Contreras, Torie Osborn, Traci Bivens-Davis, Susan Bluestein Davis, Rev. Steve Pieters, Bamby Salcedo, Melissa Rivers, Jim J Bullock, Chandi Moore

FESTIVALS
2023: Santa Barbara International

AVAILABLE TERRITORIES
The World

EXHIBITION FORMATS
DCP, Digital Download