On August 23rd at 8/7c, Logo will be premiering Quiet Heroes, a documentary which focuses on two lesbian medical professionals who, during the peak of the AIDS crisis in Salt Lake City, become some of the only doctors willing to see AIDS patients in all of Utah. To connect the film to the modern-day HIV/AIDS epidemic, MTV created a short PSA that highlights the modern day “heroes” who, despite outsized stigma and fear, are supporting their friends and loved ones living with HIV.
The PSA video features 5 HIV+ young people who are boldly speaking out against the stigma that people living with HIV still face today. On camera, these young people are given the chance to thank a hero in their lives for helping them through difficult moments in their journey, and unbeknownst to them, their heroes are hidden on set listening to the beautiful, warm thank-yous.
To find ways to support people living with HIV, head to http://hero.mtv.com, and make sure to tune-in to the premiere of “Quiet Heroes” on August 23rd at 8/7c on Logo.
More information on Quiet Heroes is included below, and visit hero.MTV.com to find more ways that you can support those living with HIV.
About Quiet Heroes:
Dr. Kristen Ries, an infectious disease specialist, arrived in Salt Lake City on June 5, 1981—the same day the Centers for Disease Control first published a report on what would become known as AIDS. By the next year, Ries would encounter her first patient with the disease. Because of stigma and fear surrounding both AIDS and homosexuality, Ries and her eventual partner, physician assistant Maggie Snyder, became the only medical professionals in Utah willing to treat the growing number of people with HIV/AIDS. These patients, facing certain death in the early years of the epidemic, often had to keep their status a secret or risk ostracism from their families, workplaces, and religious communities.
Chronicles of the AIDS epidemic have typically focused on cities with large gay populations, like New York and San Francisco. Quiet Heroes instead reveals the impact of the disease on a less obvious, more conservative location—one that perhaps better mirrored the rest of the country at the time—as it shares the evocative story of these unheralded caregivers and their patients.
As part of the three-time Emmy Award-winning Logo Documentary Films, Quiet Heroes will make its broadcast debut on August 23rd at 8/7c. The film, which had its’ world premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, is directed and produced by Jenny Mackenzie, Jared Ruga, and Amanda Stoddard. Pamela Post and Taj Paxton serve as executive producers from Logo Documentary Films.
H/t: to MTv.com and MPRM Communications for the press release and information.