Abstract

In an attempt to move beyond the activist re-imaginings of the AIDS pandemic that saturate the current media landscape, this thesis professes an alternate archive of personalized documentaries that articulate a counter-history of the AIDS crisis. Rather than merely frame these videos as solipsistic accounts of self-misery during a politicized pandemic, the thesis argues that these texts embody an ambivalent address that not only converses with the dominant politics of activist histories (epitomized by organizations like ACT UP) but also offer differing modes of constructing the self under the shadow of HIV/AIDS. Although it discusses a variety of texts from varying national contexts, the primary focus of this thesis is on four films from Canada, the United States, India, and Iran. Divided temporally, the thesis argues for the ways in which these films underscore the corporeal, existential, and familial dimensions of living in the shadow of AIDS. Moving from the negotiation of the altered body in The Broadcast Tapes of Dr. Peter and Silverlake Life (1993) to a queer-of-color critique of a dichotomous understanding of kinship during the AIDS crisis in Summer in My Veins (1999), the thesis underscores the myriad ways in which these personalized documents unsettle the established discourses laid forth by dominant AIDS politics. Finally, in order to draw attention to an ongoing global pandemic, the thesis concludes with Meteor (2023) to re-think notions of AIDS activist struggles first envisioned by AIDS coalitions. By bringing these hitherto marginalized archives into focus, the thesis aims to contribute to a multifaceted understanding of the AIDS crisis beyond the interventions of activist histories.