AIDS Activism Film Kicks Off Local AIDS Walk

As a first step toward the 2007 AIDS Walk Sarasota/Manatee, New College of Florida will present a free showing of the 1992 film, “Voices from the Front,” the first feature-length documentary about the AIDS activist movement.

The public is welcome to attend the showing Thursday, Oct. 25, at 7 p.m. in the Room 008 (Teaching Auditorium), Hamilton Classroom Building, New College. The site is on New College’s east campus (turn east off U.S. 41 at the light at Gen. Spaatz Boulevard; the Hamilton Center is just east of the Sudakoff Center).

The film, “Voices from the Front,” covers the emotional and political effects of community activism through the voices of those directly engaged. It aims through pictures and words to change public consciousness, expose profiteering by drug companies and challenge government inaction toward AIDS.

Some of the stories told include an activist who confronts New York’s mayor about a friend who was left in an emergency-room hallway for nine days, and another who protests to stop the closing of a Harlem hospital. Protests at the Food and Drug Administration in 1988 and the National Institutes of Health in 1990 are documented in the film.

The 2.5-mile AIDS Walk, co-chaired by Trinity Charities and New College, will begin at 8 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 27, on the New College campus. The start and finish lines are at the Sudakoff Center, where there will be food, raffles, a DJ playing music and prizes. On-site registration begins at 7:30 a.m. The walk route goes south from New College, along North and South Shore Drive, and then loops back along Bay Shore Road. Teams of more than 500 walkers are expected.

To become a sponsor, register a team or for more information, go to the Web site at www.trinitycharities.org.