episode
Set against the lead-up to a stage play based on the same story, FOR THE LOVE OF FRIENDS is a documentary that blends performance rehearsal clips with interview and archival footage to highlight the remarkable life and work of activist Brent Nicholson Earle. At the height of the AIDS epidemic, Brent refused to watch his friends suffer due to government inaction and public ignorance about the disease. His audacious response in 1986 was to embark on a 10, 000-mile run around the perimeter of the United States to draw attention to the plight of AIDS patients. He performed this remarkable feat amid public backlash, a homophobic media blackout, his own health challenges, and an inconvenient lack of any long-distance training. After enduring blisters, exhaustion, ignorance and fear, he returns home to his own HIV diagnosis. Though the run finishes, Brent's activism never stops.
