A recent private screening highlighted a forthcoming documentary about AIDS activist Brent Nicholson Earle — including his journey running around the nation in the 1980s to raise awareness about the epidemic.
The film, entitled “For the Love of Friends,” which has yet to be released, combines footage of Earle’s run with his own perspective through interviews conducted for the documentary.
Earle was on hand at the SVA Theater for the private screening — which also featured a Q&A — and he was joined by fellow longtime activists such as Jim Eigo and Michael Kerr, as well as the film’s executive producers David Charner and Barbara Martinez, writer/director Cara Consilvio, producer Alex Charner, and cinematographer/editor Greg Emetaz.
“In 1986, to awaken America to the AIDS crisis and to honor the friends he lost, Brent Nicholson Earle runs the perimeter of the United States,” the film’s website states. “In The American Run for the End of AIDS, Brent runs almost a marathon a day for 20 months straight. After enduring blisters, exhaustion, ignorance, and fear, he returns home to his own HIV diagnosis. Though the run finishes, Brent’s activism never stops.”
Producer Alex Charner told Gay City News that the film also touches on Earle’s life beyond running, including his return to the stage in January of 2019 to tell his own story. Following his first prominent run, Earle continued to embark on long-distance journeys. Scroll down to watch the trailer:
TRAILER:
