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MOVIE · 1985

Buddies

DramaRomance81 min

In New York City, a gay man in a steady relationship volunteers as a “buddy,” visiting strangers with AIDS who have been left isolated by fear, stigma, and failing health. He is assigned to a hospitalized man who is dying, and what begins as an act of service turns into an intimate, sometimes difficult friendship. As the visits continue, the two men talk through anger, loneliness, desire, and the everyday indignities of the epidemic. Their bond forces the volunteer to confront what care really asks of him, and what it means to stay present when a crisis is still being denied outside the hospital room.

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