And the Band Played On (film)
| And the Band Played On | |
|---|---|
Promotional poster
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| Based on |
And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts |
| Screenplay by | Arnold Schulman |
| Directed by | Roger Spottiswoode |
| Starring |
Matthew Modine Alan Alda Ian McKellen Lily Tomlin Richard Gere |
| Theme music composer | Carter Burwell |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Sarah Pillsbury Midge Sanford |
| Cinematography | Paul Elliott |
| Editor(s) | Lois Freeman-Fox |
| Running time | 141 minutes |
| Production company(s) | HBO Pictures |
| Distributor | HBO NBC |
| Budget | $8 million |
| Release | |
| Original release | September 11, 1993 |
And the Band Played On is a 1993 American television film docudrama directed by Roger Spottiswoode. The teleplay by Arnold Schulman is based on the best-selling 1987 non-fiction book And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts.
The film premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival before being broadcast by HBO on September 11, 1993. It later was released in the United Kingdom, Canada, Spain, Germany, Argentina, Austria, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Denmark, New Zealand, and Australia. The HBO movie was later aired on NBC in 1994. NBC (as well as ABC) were some of the networks considered to make a mini-series based on the book in the late 80's, but the networks turned it down because they could not find a way to structure it as a two night, four hour miniseries. In 1994, NBC finally aired the HBO movie with a parental discretion warning due to its sensitive subject.
In a prologue set in 1976, American epidemiologist Don Francis arrives in a village on the banks of the Ebola River in Zaire and discovers many of the residents and the doctor working with them have died from a mysterious illness later identified as Ebola hemorrhagic fever. It is his first exposure to such an epidemic, and the images of the dead he helps cremate will haunt him when he later becomes involved with HIV/AIDS research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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