Two interviews with Dr Mervyn Silverman, from 1988 and 2008. He explains the San Francisco model, how it began and what others can learn from it.

M.D. Mervyn Silverman is one of the pioneers in the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Here he talks about the shifts of topics on the International AIDS Conferences between 1985 and 2008, about the so called San Francisco Model of AIDS care, and about the closing of the Bathhouses.

Dr Selma Dritz tells the story of how the AIDS epidemic started in Los Angeles and San Francisco in the early 80's and how AIDS was connected to the gay liberation movement. She also talks about the government and community responses at that time.

This production was made as the opening film for the IV International AIDS Conference in Stockholm in June 1988. It gives a broad representation of the global AIDS situation in the late 1980's, and has a particular focus on social structures, poverty and stigma.