The Harold Scott story: Remembering and documenting an activist, educator, thirty-five-year HIV/AIDS survivor (Video Essay)
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Date
2026-09-04
Authors
Bertram, Amy
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Film and Screen Media, University College Cork
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Abstract
Harold Scott has survived more than thirty-five years living HIV+ and has dedicated his life to HIV/AIDS education and activism by telling his own story. A gay man who grew up in the rural southern US, Harold had no concept of homosexuality until his twenties and contracted HIV/AIDS from his first gay experience. Since the early 1990s, Harold’s personal storytelling has impacted and instructed others about this ongoing epidemic in a heartfelt way made more profound by his simple delivery and sheer perseverance. Harold’s remarkable longevity and resilience contrasts sharply with the early history of AIDS as a death sentence. The video essay and accompanying written narrative explore Harold’s journey living with HIV/AIDS, finding healthcare and support groups in Tennessee, and his path to educating others about AIDS. His story is also a personal one. Dr Katherine Bertram, my mother, served as Harold’s local doctor, the first physician to accept AIDS patients in the Upper Cumberland region of Middle Tennessee in the early 1990s. This project includes interviews plus photos and memorabilia to preserve his ongoing saga as a tool for education, activism and to prevent his story from falling into queer obsolescence.
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Bertram, A., 'The Harold Scott story: Remembering and documenting an activist, educator, thirty-five-year HIV/AIDS survivor (Video Essay)', Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media, 31, pp. 84–90. https://doi.org/10.33178/alpha.31.05