Film Overview

You are about to learn about "The HIV Matrix." You will never think about "AIDS" the same way again.

In storybook fashion, this literary, intellectually stimulating film goes back and forth between three stories which come together in the last fifteen minutes in one of the most profound and shocking visions of what "The HIV Matrix" has been and what it could become in the future.

The title story begins with the outrageous satirical premise that the government declares the AIDS epidemic over because all gay men are thought to be dead. That is, until two gay men are found to be still alive in Cape May, New Jersey and all hell breaks loose as the media and the public accuse the government of covering up the truth. Everyone wants to know why these two men (Seth and Kyle) didn't do what the AIDS establishment, the celebrities and the activists urged them to do. Why did they refuse to wear red ribbons and cooperate with the AIDS agenda? Why are they still alive if the AIDS epidemic is supposedly over? The whole world watches the world's leading talk show host (Larry) grill them with questions. In one of the great examples of sustained irony and uncompromising satire, the answers to those questions will make your head spin and have you laughing out loud. (And many will even be cheering their courage and independent-mindedness.) Needless to say, these two gay heroes end up paying the ultimate price for their independence and their ability to escape "The HIV Matrix."

And that's only one of the three thematically intertwined stories. The second story focuses on an very unlucky, extremely unattractive, but good-hearted gay man (Eddie) who comes to New York City in the 70s and finds only romantic disappointment in the gay community. Because he is beauty-challenged, no one will sleep with him. Absolutely no one. His looks even prevent him from getting into into Studio 54. But he has a kind heart and he never gives up hope. In the end, only when he mysteriously develops what doctors think is "AIDS" and is dying does he receive the love and attention from the world that he craves--and only because his death turns out to be a milestone in the "AIDS" epidemic. And he's not even positive for HIV! He represents every well-meaning, hapless soul lost in "The HIV Matrix."

In the third story, a man's dysfunctional obsession with clowns results in him becoming one of the leading AIDS activists. The story satirically explores the disturbing politics of the gay community's enthusiastic and naive cooperation with an AIDS agenda that was ultimately against its own best interest. The deathbed scene in which an entire family of professionals (in clown costumes) watches their gay brother die captures the apocalyptic foolishness that has turned AIDS into the political and scientific mess that it is. It truly took a village of clowns to build "The HIV Matrix" that we are all trapped in now.