The main branch of Oak Park Public Library will show the film The Other Side of AIDS on Jan. 17, 7 p.m., at 834 Lake Street, in the Veterans Room. However, the showing has whipped up a storm of controversy within the LGBT community.
IoFilm.com says the film takes swipes at many notions about AIDS, including the widely held assumption that HIV causes AIDS. The site, in reviewing the movie, states that ‘ [director] Robin Scovill’s film challenges the received science, suggesting that HIV tests are flawed [and that] patients are more likely to die of the AIDS drugs like AZT than of AIDS itself.’ Chicago Indymedia’s site provides a summary of the film and quotes from notables such as Robert Gant from Queer As Folk.
Many in the LGBT community are irate that the movie was even made, much less is being shown. Complaints have ranged from allegations that the film is full of lies to the fact that it will be shown on Martin Luther King, Jr., Day.
However, there is one item that some parties feel should be cleared up: Although the library is providing the space for the film, it is not sponsoring the movie. A small group that includes Chicago Indymedia’s Rita Maniotis; her husband, college professor Andrew Maniotis; and physician Michelle Brannick has rented the room for the event.
Rita Maniotis told Windy City Times that she feels the movie needs to be seen. ‘There’s a lot of material in [the film] that has been censored by the mainstream,’ she said. However, she added that she had no idea that the showing would cause such a furor: ‘The purpose here is to be informative, not inflammatory.’
Maniotis also said there will be another showing of the movie in February in Chicago.