Film 'For the Love of Friends' documents Brent Earle's historic run during the '80s AIDS crisis

“If you haven’t lived through a plague, or a war, I guess it’s really hard to imagine it. I mean, I’ve lived through it, and I can barely imagine it.” That’s how Brent Nicholson Earle described the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, during which time his friends died by the dozens, week after week, year after year.

To raise awareness, Earle undertook a marathon run that lasted 20 months, unbroken, and he drew the world’s attention to a crisis that had been willfully overlooked for too long. A new documentary about Earle’s run recently came out on PBS Passport, titled “For the Love of Friends.” In this interview, filmmaker Cara Consilvio joined “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes to share more. 

“It was someone coming in with this energy and fight and education. This was when people still didn’t quite know how you could get it,” Consilva said.