LOGLINE 

In the Shadow of AIDS examines how the AIDS crisis shaped three generations—Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials—through the often-overlooked stories of women. This documentary explores how grief, activism, stigma, and resilience echoed differently across generations, revealing both the fractures and the threads that bind them.

STORY

When HIV/AIDS emerged in the early 1980s, it struck fear into the heart of a nation unprepared to respond—and unwilling to care. The epidemic first appeared among white gay men in major cities, but its reach and devastation quickly spread to every corner of society. For years, the government stood by in silence, even as entire communities were lost.

By 1995, the death toll reached its peak. LGBTQ+ communities, especially in urban centers like San Francisco and New York, were gutted. Baby Boomers—many of whom were the first generation to come out publicly—watched their peers die in droves. Gen Xers, coming of age during the crisis, grew up in the shadow of death and silence. Many internalized the belief that they would not survive into adulthood. Millennials inherited both the trauma and the activism of their elders, shaped by a legacy of grief and resistance that few fully understood.

In the Shadow of AIDS explores the epidemic through the experiences of women across these three generations—voices too often missing from the historical record. Lesbians became frontline caregivers. Queer women built networks of harm reduction and mutual aid when institutions failed. Their stories illuminate the different ways each generation encountered the epidemic: Boomers confronting mass loss and governmental indifference; Gen X navigating adolescence amid fear and stigma; Millennials growing up with the inherited silence of a traumatized community, while facing new battles for health equity.

The documentary also explores the lasting influence of grassroots movements like ACT UP and the emergence of harm reduction practices that remain lifesaving today. It draws parallels between the government’s slow response to AIDS and the early mishandling of COVID-19—raising urgent questions about who is protected, who is left behind, and who does the work of care.

At its heart, In the Shadow of AIDS is an intergenerational story of survival and reckoning—of how trauma, activism, and community evolve over time, and how women have always been at the center of care, memory, and resistance.