What's On

Choose Life: Edinburgh's Battle Against AIDS, a film by Stephen Bennett

UK AIDS Memorial Quilt display

Choose Life: Edinburgh's Battle Against AIDS, a film by Stephen Bennett
Date 17th Sep 2026 7.00pm - 8.00pm Price Free - ticket required Location Tramway View map

A screening of Stephen Bennett’s landmark documentary Choose Life: Edinburgh's Battle Against AIDS (2019), introduced by Wendy Cooper (Waverley Care). 

The film examines the decade between 1979 and 1989, when Edinburgh was dubbed the "AIDS capital of Europe," meeting the doctors, drug users, police and locals caught up in a frightening new epidemic they could barely understand. 

The screening is followed by a late night exhibition opening for Glasgow Art Weekend.


This event is part of a public programme curated by Steven Grainger to accompany the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt exhibition at Tramway.


Audience note
Contains archival material and testimony relating to the AIDS epidemic in 1980s Edinburgh, including intravenous drug use and needle-sharing, bereavement and loss, and depictions of police conduct towards drug users. Some viewers may find 1980s news coverage of the epidemic distressing.


ACCESS
Tramway is fully wheelchair accessible. See more information about venue access on our Access page 

Film still courtesy of Stephen Bennett