Staffan Hildebrand looks back on his 25 years of documenting the HIV and AIDS epidemic for the Face of AIDS Film Archive. The film portrays a shift from pessimism towards a growing optimism in the response to HIV and AIDS.

Dr Robert C Gallo talks about the importance of yearly AIDS congresses. He also talks about the scientific community before and during the AIDS epidemic, and puts the disease outbreak into a sociological context.

Praphan Phanupak is Professor in Immunology and the Director of the Thai Red Cross AIDS Research Centre (TRC-ARC). He talks about the incidence and prevalence of HIV infection in different parts of Thailand and about human experiments on Thai drug users.

Robin Weiss, a British Molecular Biologist and Professor of Viral Oncology at University College London, talks about the scientific contribution of small countries like Sweden, interdisciplinary collaborations in HIV research and HIV vaccines.

Jonathan Mann, was a US medical doctor and influential within the World Health Organization (WHO). Here he talks about the global understanding of the disease between 1981 and 1988.

Nobel Prize Laureate Luc Montagnier answers questions on the origin of HIV, the spreading of the virus, prevention, and the possibility of a vaccine.