Killing Patient Zero (Documentary)

Its been after a really long time that I enjoyed and liked a documentary like this one. Most times, documentaries become this very focused thing on one such subject, which I understand is the whole point of the thing, but to make it equally engaging and interesting is not easy. Based a book, this documentary is a compelling exploration of how a French Canadian flight attendant, Gaetan Dugas, came to be branded by the media as ‘Patient Zero’ and was widely blamed for bringing the HIV virus into the US. This documentary take an approach to clear his name, after his reputation was badly destroyed in Randy Shilts’ groundbreaking book 'And the Band Played On'. The film focuses on , if at all, the man should be celebrated for his continued support to CDC in helping, preventing and finding the causes and probable solution for the whole HIV/AIDS pandemic time.

The doc features plenty of folks and we get to see very personal portrait of Gaetan Dugas. It first starts with the whole cultural landscape in US, how being gay was not easy, eventually leading to riots of Stonewall and then the "gay virus" AIDS. Shifting to Dugas eventually, his friends, his colleagues and even some of his ex-lovers come on the screen to share their personal stories about the man. They all talk about his charm, his flamboyance, and most importantly how promiscuous he was. To tp that, his job as a flight attendant gave him the flexibility to travel everywhere and opportunities for multiple sexual hook-ups. We also get to hear from the CDC AIDS former Taskforce members about how they eventually connected the growing AIDS concern to Dugas who cooperated fully with the scientists investigating the epidemic, providing the names of his lovers, but refused to change his sexual behavior on the ground that no proof had yet been found that the disease was spreading by sexual contact. He was part of a “cluster study” tracing sexual contacts and labeled “Patient O,” meaning “Out of California.” But the O was mistaken for “Zero” at one point, giving the erroneous impression that Dugas was at the epicenter of the epidemic. We then get to see why Randy, a famous journalist at that point, decided to use this to sensationalize his book and how, according to him, that was the only way to get attention from the government officials to do something to fix the issue. 

Although Killing Patient Zero clearly sets out to clean up Dugas’ reputation, it also presents a complex portrait of a man whose behavior was self-destructive and dangerous. In the process, a scientist forcefully points out that the infection has a 10-year latency period and that Dugas is a scapegoat. The man known as “Patient Zero” himself died from AIDS in 1984 at age 31. As the film makes clear, he didn’t cause the epidemic, he was merely one of its victims. The interviewees of Killing Patient Zero share some wonderful and heartbreaking coming out stories and tales of finding relief in the ability to live without feeling like they’re hiding. There are open and candid discussions of sexuality including anal douche and bottoming. The documentary uses the traditional structure, combining talking head interviews with archive video, audio and photographs to impressive effect. But thankfully, in the process, it does end up , to a large extent, set Dugas free of the notorious references that he had attached to his name. (7/10)