WORLD PREMIERES:  December 1ST – In honor of World AIDS Day

 

In the ‘80s and ‘90s, as the gay community was being ravaged by AIDS, families and friends of the dying fought a public battle to find treatment and understanding. The AIDS Memorial Quilt was conceived, "…as a weapon against not only the disease but the cruelty and bigotry that the disease exposed," according to one of its founders, Cleve Jones. Today the Quilt is a handmade testament to both the struggle of the early days of the epidemic and its continued impact today, as panels representing lives lost to the disease continue to stream in from all over the world. THE LAST ONEis a feature-length documentary that frames the quest to sew the last panel into the Quilt, representing the end of AIDS.
 
Through archival footage, vérité scenes and interviews with founder Cleve Jones, self-described "Hand Maiden of the Quilt" Gert McMullin, and other early volunteers and panel makers, THE LAST ONE uncovers the birth of the AIDS Memorial Quilt and its subsequent impact on politics, science and the media. Through activists like Patricia Nalls and Regan Hoffman, the film explores the role the Quilt continues to play as a response to a disease that, while treatable for some, still affects vulnerable communities around the world.