A DEATH IN THE FAMILY

New Zealand, 1986, 50 minutes, Colour.
Bernadette Doolan, Nancy Flyger, Derek Hardwick, Nigel Harbrow.
Directed by Peter Wells, Stewart Main.

A Death in the Family focuses on an AIDS sufferer and his-death, the concern of his friends and the reaction of his family. The film was written and directed by Peter Wells and Stewart Maine, makers of a number of short New Zealand films with homosexual themes. This is their first feature film.

It is structured in glimpses of days over the period of a fortnight as the AIDS sufferer deteriorates and eventually dies. The film shows the suffering, of the reaction of the friends to the sufferer as well as amongst themselves, the arrival from the country of the sufferer's parents who have disowned him on knowing of his homosexuality, the criticisms of his brother-in-law who takes a fairly fundamentalist Christian viewpoint.

The film is naturalistic - though it contrives a number of the sequences to heighten audience understanding and awareness of the situation, a tableau of the sufferer and his friends designed like a Caravaggio painting.

The film was designed for New Zealand television - and thus is accessible to a wide audience. It provides a human face to AIDS suffering as well as providing material for reflection and discussion.

1. The impact of the film? For a television audience? Wide audience? A New Zealand contribution to the AIDS question?

2. Audience knowledge of and response to AIDS? Compassion and concern? Ignorance? Audience attitudes to homosexuals, to homosexuality, to the relation ship of AIDS to homosexuality? AIDS as broader than the link with homosexuality?

3. The success of the film with its small budget, the Auckland home and the street? An effective glimpse at an AIDS sufferer and his friends and family?

4. The introduction and information, the structure with the passing of the days and the naming of the days, the development in the tending of the sick, the deterioration in the dying man, the experience of death? The funeral?

5. The colour photography, its subdued style, realistic? The stylised touches, poses? Musical score?

6. AIDS and audience presuppositions, beliefs? AIDS touching people's lives? A terminal illness? The reality of a human being dying? Fear and grief?

7. Homosexuality in the New Zealand context, universal? Moral repercussions, social? Christian implications? The parents and their beliefs, cutting off their son? Change of heart? Homosexuals in a ghetto situation? Their morale because of AIDS and an AIDS sufferer-dying?

8. The information about Bob, his visit to Sydney, illness return, the strength and devotion of his friends? The victim's life, his memories, the memories of others about him - liveliness, relationships, photos, friends? The doctor and her visit, her compassion and concern? The woman in the house and friendship, preparing of the meals? Tending to the sick man, -his eating, bathing? The friends watching the decline, his not eating, growing more feeble? The dilemma about telling him the truth and the doctor's decision? Her thinking she had not done it well? The hard death?

9. The group of friends: their varying personalities, response to the illness, fears, watching the sick man, their own lives, attitudes, relationships? Jokes? Their comments about being homosexual in New Zealand? Their attitude towards the family? To their friend's death, their decision about his funeral?

10. The doctor, her care, the baby? Coping, telling the dying man that he was to die and not communicating it well? The woman and the feminine presence in the house?

11. The family and their experience, decision to come to their dying son, the varying reactions? The brother-in-law and the Bible? Despising the homosexuals? Feelings of compassion? The father and his antipathy, visit, concern about his son, offering the cheque to cover costs? The mother and her grief, her kissing the men in gratitude? The clash of opinions? The presentation of fundamentalist Christianity? The self-righteous and judgmental approach?

12. The funeral, the man's wishes, his family? What was the audience left with after sharing this experience of two weeks watching the death in the family?