Explores the remarkable life and work of activist Brent Nicholson Earle.
For the Love of Friends encores Sunday, June 23 at 1 p.m. on WXXI-TV.
Set against the lead-up to a stage play based on the same story, For the Love of Friends is a documentary that blends performance rehearsal clips with interview and archival footage to highlight the remarkable life and work of activist Brent Nicholson Earle. At the height of the AIDS epidemic, Brent refused to watch his friends suffer due to government inaction and public ignorance about the disease.
His audacious response in 1986, was to embark on a 10,000-mile run around the perimeter of the United States to draw attention to the toll AIDS had taken on his community; to comfort patients, raise funds for local organizations and honor the friends he had lost. He performed this remarkable feat amid public backlash, a homophobic media blackout, his own health challenges, and an inconvenient lack of prior long-distance training. After enduring blisters, exhaustion, ignorance, and fear, he returns home to a life of activism. Though the run finishes, Brent’s fight never stops.
Photo: Brent Nicholson Earle • Photo provided by APT