KILLING PATIENT ZERO

By Laurie LYND

KEW MEDIA DISTRIBUTION - as SALES All rights, World

Documentary - Completed 2018

Spanning the pre-AIDS era of the 1970s until today, the story of Gaétan Dugas – aka ‘Patient Zero’ – serves as the perfect microcosm of the disease’s evolution in America.

Festivals
& Awards

HotDocs 2019
World Premiere
Sydney Queer Film Festival 2019
Winner, Audience Award
DOC NYC 2019
    • Year of production
    • 2018
    • Genres
    • Documentary
    • Countries
    • CANADA
    • Duration
    • 98 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Laurie LYND
    • Producer(s)
    • Corey RUSSELL
    • Synopsis
    • When a new, deadly virus spreads across North America at an alarming rate, one man is singled out for bringing the disease to the continent.

      Spanning the 1970s until today, the story of Gaétan Dugas – aka ‘Patient Zero’ – serves as the perfect microcosm of the evolution of AIDS in America and the country’s response to it. In the early 1980s, little was known about this global epidemic, except that it seemed to be most prevalent amongst gay men. America was in the grip of fear and uncertainty and, in the scramble for answers, Dugas would become known and vilified as ‘Patient Zero’. Exploring timely themes about fear, the demonising of the unknown and the danger of false narratives, the documentary weaves social history and scientific investigation into a poignant story of an individual who became intrinsically and tragically linked with AIDS.