Perhaps the first film to put a human face on the AIDS epidemic, Longtime
Companion follows the lives of a small circle of friends from the first mention
of the disease in the New York Times in 1980. First referred to as "Gay-
Related-Immune-Disorder," we watch the effect of the disease as it
devastates the lives of our protagonists. Jumping between Manhattan and
Fire Island, vignettes carry us from the it-couldn't-happen-to-me mentality of
the early days of the disease to the invasive effect it has had on all of our
lives, today. The title of the film comes from the New York Times' refusal to
acknowledge homosexual relationships in their obituary section during this
period. Instead, survivors were referred to as "Longtime Companions" of the
deceased.