Longtime Companion movie storyline. 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 1981. 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.
Longtime Companion is a 1989 film with Bruce Davison, Campbell Scott, Patrick Cassidy, and Mary-Louise Parker. The first wide-release theatrical film to deal with the subject of AIDS, the film takes its title from the words The New York Times used to describe the surviving same-sex partner of someone who had died of AIDS during the 1980s.
Longtime Companion (1990)
Directed by: Norman René
Starring: Stephen Caffrey, Patrick Cassidy, Brian Cousins, Bruce Davison, John Dossett, Mark Lamos, Dermot Mulroney, Mary-Louise Parker, Michael Schoeffling, Campbell Scott
Screenplay by: Craig Lucas
Production Design by: Andrew Jackness
Cinematography by: Tony C. Jannelli
Film Editing by: Katherine Wenning
Costume Design by: Walker Hicklin
Set Decoration by: Kate Conklin
Art Direction by: Ruth Ammon
Music by: Greg De Belles
Distributed by: The Samuel Goldwyn Company
Release Date: October 11, 1990
Hits: 78
