The best way to incorporate HIV-positive people or people with AIDS in storylines is to have them blend into the fabric of the plot, I think. It's a real-life issue that people grapple with, and there are all sorts of ways to use the daily struggle of AIDS to introduce plot drama (I lost my job; will I still be able to afford my meds? How do I tell my new partner?) that could even be touchingly funny. But making a diagnosis the plot's turning point is much worse than a show about lesbians looking for a sperm donor: it fetishizes being on the outside of society and in the process trivializes the struggles which people with HIV face.I wonder if that's advice that might have been useful for the makers of Stonewall Uprising, or at least the folks who cut the trailer. Obviously, if you're examining a situation like Stonewall, you can't just make gayness part of the tapestry of the story. It is the story. But I do wonder about the effectiveness of bashing audiences over the head with the fact that America was super-homophobic, rather than focusing on the people who were actually there:
I'm not trying to minimize the fact that life was awful for gay people in the United States, and in many places, remains awful, if perhaps somewhat less dangerous. But I'm trying to think strategically. The folks who participated in the Stonewall riots were more than their victimization, they were more than the fact that they were oppressed by the cops and by society. That's what enabled them to stand up, the increasing security of that knowledge.
One of the best documentaries I've ever seen, The Weather Underground, gives plenty of context on the circumstances that led a group of talented young people to take up arms against the United States government and mainstream society. But it also spends most of its time letting them explain their reasoning, and their regrets, focusing tightly on the multiple perspectives that they provide. I tend to think that's the most useful way to make documentaries, by trusting in the people who were there to explain themselves and represent their perspectives clearly, rather than by using them only for color. A good documentary surprises you with detail, and sometimes even with where you stand when you're done.