We’ve seen movies about older men and men in their 30s dealing with this. But I think enough time has passed that a different kind of story can be told. Revisiting this particular moment in history, when the HIV test was introduced?ĬMJ: I think the stories that needed to be told first were of death and dying and governmental inaction and political activism. But it’s also a film about bodies in motion, about dance as affirmation of endurance and revolt against the imminent threat of mortality. Test” takes a fresh approach, depicting the panic and paranoia in LGBT communities after the AIDS outbreak. The protagonist is not passive–both his anxiety and thirst for life are released when he dances.
With period detail and propulsive soundtrack (featuring Bronski Beat’s club anthem “Smalltown Boy”), the film, cast with professional dancers, achieves authenticity. In 2014, one of the eagerly-awaited movies was Chris Mason Johnson’s “Test”, a sly low-budget indie about Frankie (Scott Marlowe), a dancer in San Francisco in 1985, who juggles his career and love life while agonizing over getting the newly HIV test.