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City's gay and lesbian community and its supporters. the demonstrators are from a defiant political action group called actup, the aids coalition to unleash power. actup's co-founder, eric sawyer, was diagnosed with hiv in 1984. >> one thing we realized writing letters or articles to the editor about the health crises wasn't getting the public's attention and decided we really had to disrupt people in their daily lives the way aids was disrupting our daily lives. >> the crisis began in 1981 when a mysterious disease started spreading among gay men and intravenous drug users. >> they didn't kno...

News organizations. planning to disrupt their live broadcasts. they succeed at cbs. >> good evening. we're going to take a break for a commercial just now. >> we knew that cameras were going to cut off as soon as they could. so we didn't know whether we were going to get one word out, two words out, or a whole sentence. so we came up with "fight aids, not arabs, act up, act back, fight aids." >> the next day, actup's planned demonstrations wreak havoc on the city. the plan for the end of the day is a giant show of force. >> the goal was to see if we could make all three news programs -- >> we'...

Aids deaths skyrocket. by 1991, the number of people infected with hiv reaches 1 million. and there's still no effective drug treatment in sight. >> almost in step with the way the epidemic was exploding, the turnout to act up exploded. first it was a few dozen people planning, and then a thousand people or more showing up at a meeting. >> in january, 1991, around the 10-year anniversary of the epidemic, actup mounts a major coordinated protest, hoping to attract maximum media coverage. they call it day of desperation. >> we've gotten some progress in some things, but we still thought the medi...

I deserve to live just as much as you do. >> actup's success at not only defying authority, but creating revolutionary results, was the fact that we didn't simply get angry and shout in the streets. >> we did change the way the media talked about aids. we demanded the right to be able to live. and we fought like hell for action to happen to save our lives. coming up, a journalist puts his life in jeopardy to report from one of the most dangerous places on earth. when "caught on camera: defiance" continues. and enjoyable approach... compared to the alternatives. push! i am pushing! sfx: pants...

And bone fragments. you're looking at bone fragments of people. people you knew. >> we are gathered here today to pay our last respects to the bush administration. >> i think the ashes action was kind of drawing a line in the sand and saying, we aren't going to take it anymore. you know, we are bringing our dead to your door, and you had better start doing something to stop the dying, or, you know, you literally are going to be walking on bodies. >> shame, shame, shame, shame. >> it was the most emotionally charged thing i've ever participated in. we never had a problem with showing our anger,...