ERIK PAUSER

Infected

The Story of HIV in Sweden

Swedish title “Smittad — När HIV kom till Sverige”
Year of production: 2012

As the HIV epidemic spread around the world in the early 1980′s panic broke out. In Sweden alone newspapers predicted that over a million people would die before the year 2000. HIV patients were often kept under lock and key as authorities struggled to know what to do and the public in general believed anything they heard. Using unique and often very telling archive material, this film will weave the compelling and emotive stories of people whose lives were changed forever by the ‘virus from hell’.
As we look into the not so distant past and observe the reflex actions of our society when under threat, this film asks what we have learnt from our experience and whether it will allow us to deal with the next crisis differently?

Svensk dokumentär från 2012. Sverige på 80-talet. Yuppien hade sett dagens ljus, vi bar axelvaddar och tränade aerobics. Gayrörelsen var på frammarsch och utelivet hade börjat blomstra. Men det mullrade i bakgrunden. Ett dittills okänt dödligt virus spreds bland homosexuella män och läkarvetenskapen stod handfallen. I dokumentären varvas unikt arkivmaterial med röster från de som var med under den första tiden när hiv kom till Sverige.

www.svt.se/smittad

Director: Dylan Williams
Producer: Erik Pauser
Production company: AMP film.

A production for SVT