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AND THE BAND PLAYED ON opens. Directed by Roger Spottiswoode. Written by Arnold Schulman. Based on the 1987 book by journalist Randy Schilts. Exhaustive, complex, multi-arc account of a handful of dedicated researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who, with little funding, equipment or manpower, fought political indifference, prejudice and ignorance in an effort to reign in the AIDS epidemic. Matthew Modine toplines as the epidemiologist who tracks the at first mysterious virus from its incubation in Africa in 1976 to its beachhead in the US some five years later. Alan Alda, Phil Collins, Richard Gere, Anjelica Houston, Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin are just some of the supporting stars who help drive an impassioned, revelatory call-to-arms. Made by HBO for American television but released theatrically in key overseas markets,
