It's my life - Gabby Propato

When I heard we were watching a film on AIDS, I was expecting something totally different from what we watched. I was expecting to see the usual representation of this horrible situation; children and adults dying, images of very sick people. But instead we see a man who does have access to the medicine, but refuses to take it to make a stand. I was almost disappointed because I feel like this didn't make nearly as much of a punch as it could have. Don't get me wrong, I felt terrible for Zackie and the others affected by AIDS not maintaining their lives with life-saving medicine, but it was just too...normalized. And maybe that's the scary thing about it. It's My Life  normalizes a deadly virus, but I feel like it doesn't make the impact that people expect when they think of an AIDS documentary. Personally, I have seen how important medicine is to staying alive. My mom has been fighting cancer for almost 4 years and without medicine, she wouldn't be here right now. Medicine and the easiness with which it is made available to us here in America is what was really emphasized to me through this film.  It is heartbreaking to think that thousands of people are dying because they cannot afford medicine to keep them alive, and because pharmaceutical companies are not willing to accommodate these people to help them. As with many of the films we have watched in class, I am yet again reminded of the privileges I have in my life that are denied to many.