Too Close for Comfort is a Canadian docudrama short film, directed by Peg Campbell and released in 1990.[1] Created as an educational film about HIV/AIDS, the film explores the effects on a group of high school students when one of them is involuntarily outed as HIV-positive.[2]
The film stars Stephen Fanning as Nick, a high school basketball player who is fired from his after-school job at a video store when his boss is informed of his HIV status. As the information spreads, some of Nick's friends immediately reject him because they incorrectly assume that he is gay.
However, some of his other friends rally around him and start to work on an educational video about HIV and homophobia, inserting the film's educational component as they interview real people living with HIV about the disease.[3] The film also simultaneously follows the progression of David (Peter Stebbings) from being the person who first tipped off their friends about what happened at the video store, through joining the filmmaking project, to revealing that he has himself been struggling with internalized homophobia around his own sexuality.[3]
Background
Director Peg Campbell says that when she shared the film's story plot with grade 11 students in various Canadian schools, she was shocked to learn that the students all stated they would automatically assume the guy was gay, and they would shun him as a friend, and trash talk him. She further said that it was unfortunate that all these young people "felt AIDS is a homosexual disease", and they were not obligated to do anything about it because "they're not needle users or gays."[2]
Release
The film premiered at the Pacific Cinémathèque on 1 December 1990.[4] It was subsequently distributed for use in schools, along with a study guide on HIV and anti-homophobia education.[1] An extended version of the film's documentary component was also separately released in 1991 under the title Eric's Video.[5]
Reception
Stan Persky wrote in The Vancouver Sun that "the film is a thoroughly engrossing, poignant, politically intelligent and genuinely educational piece of local moviemaking." He also notes that the "point of Campbell's deftly crafted work is to explore the attitudes of Nick's circle of suddenly uneasy teen friends towards sexual preferences and life-threatening diseases."[3]
1 2 3 Persky, Stan (27 April 1991). "A fast half-hour of stereotype-busting". The Vancouver Sun. p.D2.
↑ Lacey, Liam (1 December 1990). "Filmmaker Peg Campbell has turned her camera on wife assault, racism and street kids. Her latest focus is an educational film about AIDS". The Globe and Mail. p.C14.
↑ Spence, Alex (2001). Gay Canada: A Bibliography and Videography, 1984-2000. Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press. p.116. ISBN978-1-55130-206-5. OCLC51505798.
↑ Acheson, Keith; Maule, Christopher J.; Filleul, Elizabet (December 1996). "Cultural entrepreneurship and the Banff Television Festival". Journal of Cultural Economics. 20 (4): 321–339. doi:10.1007/BF00149235.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
