Killing Patient Zero Explained

Killing Patient Zero
Director:Laurie Lynd
Producer:Corey Russell
Cinematography:Paul Steinberg
Editing:Trevor Ambrose
Studio:Fadoo Productions
Runtime:100 minutes
Country:Canada
Language:English

Killing Patient Zero is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Laurie Lynd and released in 2019.[1] The film is a portrait of Gaëtan Dugas, the Canadian man who was one of the earliest diagnosed HIV/AIDS patients in North America, but became incorrectly demonized as "patient zero" for the epidemic after his role in the early story of the disease was used to illustrate contact tracing in Randy Shilts's 1987 book And the Band Played On.[2]

The film premiered on April 26, 2019, at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.[3] It was released commercially on July 26, 2019.[4]

Notes and References

  1. https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/2019/04/25/documentary-killing-patient-zero-seeks-to-restore-reputation-of-quebec-man-unfairly-targeted-in-aids-epidemic.html "Documentary Killing Patient Zero seeks to restore reputation of Quebec man unfairly targeted in AIDS epidemic"
  2. https://nowtoronto.com/movies/features/hot-docs-killing-patient-zero-interview/ "Hot Docs 2019: Correcting the record on HIV's so-called patient zero"
  3. http://povmagazine.com/articles/view/review-killing-patient-zero "Review: ‘Killing Patient Zero’"
  4. Peter Knegt, "Killing Patient Zero: How a Quebec flight attendant was falsely accused of bringing AIDS to America". CBC Arts, July 25, 2019.