A rip-roaring, in-your-face musical about AIDS starring a gay ghost—the infamous Quebecois flight attendant “Patient Zero”—who seduces a 170-year-old sexologist, the Victorian adventurer Sir Richard Francis Burton. Combining influences as diverse as Bertolt Brecht, Busby Berkeley, Michel Foucault, and Barbra Streisand, director John Greyson exposes the greed, homophobia, and careerism underlying both media and scientific responses to the AIDS epidemic. Outrageously funny, with eye-popping sets and tuneful musical numbers, Zero Patience manages to celebrate the anger as well as the compassion and love in the gay community.

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Set in a working TV production office, this film follows a team producing a low-end, tacky soap opera. Executive producer Jo is leaving, and emotionally vulnerable Mark is up for the job. He’s stressed over the anniversary of his lover’s death from AIDS and by his crush on Bill, who has just broken up with his girlfriend. The tension is compounded by the homophobia of the executives upstairs and by the secret erotic skirmishes behind closed doors. The TV they produce becomes the characters’ mirror, and the film is a satire, but one that is much more than parody.

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Used as a code for gay identification during more homophobic times, the wearing of green on Thursdays has since become a symbol of the oppression against gay people by those who continue to place credence in such outdated stigmatizers when searching for gays to bash. This film examines the culture of violence among homophobes and highlights the work of the Pink Angels, a Chicago community activist group. “A distressing, compassionate, and extremely valuable film.” — LA Weekly

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