Buddies, dir. Arthur J. Bressan Jr., USA 1985, 81 min., English
Written, produced and directed by the late filmmaker Arthur J. Bressan Jr., Buddies (1985) was the first narrative feature film about the AIDS epidemic.
When 25-year-old graduate student David (David Schachter) volunteers to be a ‘buddy’ to an AIDS patient, he is assigned to Robert (Geoff Edholm), a 32-year-old Californian activist who has been abandoned by his friends and family following his diagnosis. Revolving around the confines of Robert’s Manhattan hospital room, this devastating two-hander is an intensely personal study of love and death.
Recently restored in 2k from its original 16 mm negative, this landmark film is now screening widely for the first time following its brief theatrical release in 1985.
no. 236848.