The story of the discovery of the AIDS epidemic
and the political infighting of the scientific community hampering the early fight with it.


And the Band Played On is a 1993 Emmy Award-winning American made-for-television docudrama directed by Roger Spottiswoode. The teleplay by Arnold Schulman is based on the best-selling 1987 non-fiction book And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts. The film premiered at the Montreal Film Festival before being broadcast by HBO on September 11, 1993. It later was released theatrically in the United Kingdom, Canada, Spain, Germany, Argentina, Austria, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, France, Denmark, and Australia.


In a prologue set in 1976, American epidemiologist Don Francis arrives in a village on the banks of the Ebola River in Sudan and discovers many of the residents and the doctor working with them have died from a mysterious illness later identified as the Ebola virus. It is his first exposure to such an epidemic, and the images of the dead he helps cremate will haunt him when he later becomes involved with HIV and AIDS research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 1981, Francis becomes aware of a growing number of deaths from unexplained sources among gay men in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City and is prompted to begin an in-depth investigation of the possible causes. Working with no money, limited space, and outdated equipment, he comes in contact with politicians and numerous members of the medical community - many of whom resent his involvement because of their personal agendas - and gay leaders, some of whom - like Bill Kraus - support him, while others express resentment at what they see as unwanted interference in their lifestyles, especially his attempts to close the local bathhouses. While Francis pursues his theory that AIDS is caused by a sexually transmitted virus on the model of feline leukemia, he finds his efforts are stonewalled by, among others, the CDC, which is loath to prove the disease is transmitted through blood, and competing French and American scientists, particularly Dr. Robert Gallo, who squabble about who should receive credit for discovering the virus. Meanwhile, the death toll climbs rapidly.