Rampant – How a City Stopped a Plague

Dir: Victoria Midwinter Pitt
Australia  2007 57mins

In 1982 a visiting New York gardener booked into Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital. Not knowing what caused his mystery ‘cancer’ or how to treat it, the doctors released the gardener back onto the headily promiscuous streets of gay Sydney. He was the first patient diagnosed with AIDS in Australia. Faced with an epidemic and in unchartered waters, the government did the unthinkable: they involved the most afflicted communities, recruiting Federal Ministers, tabloid editors, nuns, drug dealers and sex workers. This unconventional committee accepted human nature and embarked on a series of highly successful shock-value awareness campaigns. Although this controversial decision was much maligned at the time, the Australian approach saved thousands of lives. A fascinating and timely lesson, this thorough documentary
charts the positive effects of pragmatism and practicality that won over outrage and misplaced morality.

 

 

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