Perhaps the first film to put a human face on the AIDS epidemic, Longtime Companion follows the lives of a small circle of friends from the first mention of the disease in the New York Times in 1980.

First referred to as "Gay - Related - Immune - Disorder (GRID)" we watch the effect of the disease as it devastates the lives of our protagonists.

Jumping between Manhattan and Fire Island, vignettes carry us from the it-couldn't-happen-to-me mentality of the early days of the disease to the invasive effect it has had on all of our lives, today.

The title of the film comes from the New York Times' refusal to acknowledge homosexual relationships in their obituary section during this period. Instead, survivors were referred to as "Longtime Companions" of the deceased.

Hailed as the first mainstream film to put a human face on the AIDS epidemic, Longtime Companion is a "remarkable" (Newsweek) drama that takes an honest, unflinching look at how this devastating disease changes everyone it touches.

"Intelligent, unflinching and unpatronizing" (Boxoffice), and starring a "terrific ensemble cast" (Time Magazine) including Oscar® nominee Bruce Davison, Campbell Scott, Dermot Mulroney and Mary-Louise Parker, this heartrending, yet triumphant film is "an illuminating, deeply moving experience" (Los Angeles Times).

With eyes wide open, this movie was the first to ever really hit the nail on the head regarding the gay experience of AIDS in its earliest, scariest incarnations.

Those of us who have lost friends to the first wave of the plague remember well the desperate sense of panic and confusion. The characters here are all well-played, and well-chosen/written.

I particularly loved Dermot Mulroney (yes, he was in My Best Friend's Wedding) and Campbell Scott.

I think of this movie as a piece of history, sparingly written and filled with wit and humanity, it moves you and surprises you, and has taken on an even more poignant quality in these days of stronger medications and inhibitors that might have lengthened the many lives already lost.

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