Product Description
-------------------
For a stretch of time in the 1980s and ’90s, the word buddy
meant, in modern gay life, someone who had agreed to be a friend
to a man dying of AIDS. A buddy visited. Listened to stories.
Told stories. Laughed. Cried. And above all, tried to make sure
that the frail man in the bed knew that he had not been
forgotten. That his passing would be noted. And mourned.
David (David Schachter), a naive graduate student, has
volunteered to work as a 'buddy' for people dying of AIDS.
Assigned to the intensely political Robert (Geoff Edholm), a
lifelong activist whose friends and family have abandoned him
following his diagnosis, the two men, each with notably different
world views, soon discover common bonds, as David's inner
activist awakens and Robert's need for emotional release is
fulfilled.
* Newly scanned and restored from 16mm camera negative-
* Original theatrical trailer
* Archival still/news/ production article gallery
* English SDH subtitles
“In the 1985 film Buddies, writer-director Arthur J. Bressan Jr.
did a simple yet radical thing: He told the story of one such
friendship and, in the process, made the first feature-length
drama about AIDS. on 16mm film in nine days, Buddies earned
respectful reviews and a few festival prizes, but has faded from
view over the years. Bressan died of AIDS in July 1987; now,
thanks to the efforts of his sister Roe Bressan and film
historian Jenni Olson, Buddies has received a 2K digital
restoration from Vinegar Syndrome. Thirty-three years after its
initial release, the film remains as affecting as ever.” -
Village Voice
Synopsis
--------
For a stretch of time in the 1980s and 90s, the word buddymeant,
in modern gay life, someone who had agreed to be a friend to a
man dying of AIDS. A buddy visited. Listened to stories. Told
stories. Laughed. Cried. And above all, tried to make sure that
the frail man in the bed knew that he had not been forgotten.
That his passing would be noted. And mourned.
David (David Schachter), a naive graduate student, has
volunteered to work as a 'buddy' for people dying of AIDS.
Assigned to the intensely political Robert (Geoff Edholm), a
lifelong activist whose friends and family have abandoned him
following his diagnosis, the two men, each with notably different
world views, soon discover common bonds, as David's inner
activist awakens and Robert's need for emotional release is
fulfilled.
* Newly scanned and restored from 16mm camera negative-
* Original theatrical trailer
* Archival still/news/ production article gallery
* English SDH subtitles
"In the 1985 film Buddies, writer-director Arthur J. Bressan Jr.
did a simple yet radical thing: He told the story of one such
friendship and, in the process, made the first feature-length
drama about AIDS. on 16mm film in nine days, Buddies earned
respectful reviews and a few festival prizes, but has faded from
view over the years. Bressan died of AIDS in July 1987; now,
thanks to the efforts of his sister Roe Bressan and film
historian Jenni Olson, Buddies has received a 2K digital
restoration from Vinegar Syndrome. Thirty-three years after its
initial release, the film remains as affecting as ever." -
Village Voice