2013 Tribeca Film Festival: And the Band Played On

At the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival there was a rescreening of the film And the Band Played On, a film based on a novel of the same name. The film (and book) goes into detail about the mysterious deaths of gay men during the time right before HIV and AIDS research had started. Starring Alan Alda and Mathew Modine as the film’s main characters, it was made during a time when the two viruses were still new to the public and difficult to understand.

In attendance at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this month for the event were Tom Kalin, David France, and Doron Weber. The trio would join the film’s actor Mathew Modine as well as Ron Nyswaner  (known for writing Philidelphia) after the film’s rescreening for a question and answer session discussing the role of science in discovering new cures for certain diseases, at most focus being HIV and AIDS.

Best known for his movie Swoon, Tom Kalin is an award winning screenwriter and director. You can see his interview here.

David France is best known for the documentary How to Survive a Plague in which he was nominated for an Academy Award for. You can see his interview here:

Doron Weber is the Vice President of the Public Understanding of Science and Technology program at the Sloan Foundation. Here, he discusses how far science and technology have gone from the film’s release and improved over the years to now.

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