This week, I’m helping my students arrange their first drafts for their Film History Research Papers. They’ve all chosen a historical film to jumpstart their research They are writing about the story behind the story.  They compare what they see on the screen with what they find in the college databases. I’m reading Canvas submissions every night about the Holocaust, Jim Crow Laws, Charles, Manson, Cesar Chavez,  and the sinking of the Titanic.   I encourage my students to create a Mind Map for their writing –  a visual representation of their Film History Research Papers.  The Mind Maps not only help them arrange their ideas, but the artwork  provides them with an opportunity to share their creativity.  I find students translate their enthusiasm for their images to their enthusiasm for their writing.  At the end of the semester, l ask my students to share their  work with the rest  of us in what I call a Student News Conference.

A few of my students are writing about Freddy Mercury.  They recently saw the film Bohemian Rhapsody, they’ve  heard me speak in class about the Beatles,  and so they think, why not?  They’ll write a paper on the history of Queen. Not a bad start, I say, but I encourage them on their way back to the eighties decade to research the spread of the AIDS virus.  In 1981, I was living near San Francisco when the panic hit the City.  AIDS patient deaths in the U.S. rose from 122 in 1981 to more than 50,000 in 1995.  In the movie, Freddy Mercury was reluctant to share his AIDS diagnosis with the rest of the world.  Back then, there was little information available about the disease,  and more tragic, less treatment.  Freddy must have thought when they told him he had AIDS, it was all over.  No one could tell him  different.  Freddy died four  years after his diagnosis of AIDS-related pneumonia on Nov. 24, 1991.  I remember where I was when I heard the news on the radio.  I was driving a 1980 Toyota Corolla Tercel on California Drive in Burlingame.  I had to pull over, for my hands were shaking.  Freddy may have said just before he died he didn’t want to be a “Poster Boy” for AIDS, but his death brought much needed attention to the deadly epidemic.    Five months after his death, 72,000 people attended a benefit tribute concert at London’s Wembley Stadium, raising millions for AIDS research. 

For the past few years, I’ve been teaching online English classes, primarily due to our recent  COVID crisis.  I have received my share of sad emails from students who had to suspend their work in class to take care of sick loved ones.  In Imperial Valley, we were right in  the middle of it. It wasn’t that  long ago, that we were Number One in the California in COVID deaths.  I hope my students will be able to  draw direct lines in their Mind Maps  from HIV crisis of the 1980s  to our COVID crisis of the 2020s.  I haven’t seen Bohemian Rhapsody, but I’ve read multiple essays on the death of Freddy Mercury.  Apparently, at the beginning of  AIDS our president back then, Ronald Reagan, was in  complete denial about the reality of an epidemic.  Reagan was our Trump.  His administration was ready and willing to allow thousands of gay men to drop like flies before investing in real treatment.  I’m happy to  see my students sharing their viewpoints and research discoveries on our classroom discussion boards.  Silence is Violence.   We are all deep into our Film History Research Project.  Students have chosen topics that  are meaningful to them.  Their writing today gives them a voice – Something many AIDS victims they write about just didn’t  have.