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It is interesting that a film about AIDS that is directed by a gay-identified filmmaker (a label that has been given to Fitzgerald although he identifies more as bisexual) would tell three stories completely outside of the gay community. “I was definitely interested in redefining my perspective [on AIDS],” Fitzgerald says, “and when I grew up here in the New York area when I was 14, I had a very clear understanding that AIDS was a gay disease and that probably I would someday get it, which was a big factor in my maturing as an adult … and I'm sure for many people my age.

“I didn't necessarily seek to leave gay people out of the story, but what I found in researching what is the real face of AIDS [is that] of course gay men comprise such a tiny, tiny fraction of the population of cases of AIDS worldwide. So a lot of the characters are female, because that's a much more accurate discussion. In Africa, three times as many women have AIDS as men.”

Likewise, actor Lucy Liu feels that this global, “human standpoint” is one of the most significant things about the film. “That's what's universal about the movie,” she says. “It doesn't focus mainly on homosexuality or heroin use or what people believe about how the whole virus started — it's not about that. It's not about the gay community; it's about people and children on the whole, who may not have what they need to survive.”

As a UNICEF ambassador, Liu has seen first-hand how communities around the world have been devastated by the virus. “I've been working with UNICEF as an ambassador for the last few years, so from that I learned quite a bit and plan on continuing my work with them, and traveling and participating as much as I can in the fight against HIV and AIDS,” Liu says. “UNICEF deals mostly with children and what they need in terms of education and health and protection. In terms of HIV and AIDS, that's something that I'll always encounter.”

Perhaps best known for her comedic work in the Charlie's Angels movies and on Ally McBeal, Liu welcomed the opportunity to be a part of a film that addressed such an important global concern in what she feels is a nondidactic manner. “This film deals with the disease and the plague of our century at a very human level and from human points of view. And it shows people in life situations as opposed to … seeing the disease from a pharmaceutical standpoint. I think it's more about: What does a person do in this situation?”

Liu feels that the balance of social activism and career is one that all public figures need to find for themselves. “I think that it varies,” she explains. “If it's something that's important to you and it's something that you can work on and develop, then I think it's a great thing to be a part of. … To me, if you can — outside of your career and outside of movies — do things that are charity-oriented or things that you believe in, that's even better, because you're taking your personal time out to participate in something that you believe in as opposed to being paid for something that you might want to participate in.”

As the newly appointed CEO of GMHC, Dr. Marjorie Hill believes that 3 Needles is an excellent opportunity to further the message that her organization has been spreading for 25 years: “Silence kills. And in some ways, part of 3 Needles is about silence. The silence of government, the silence of neighbors, the silence of … the ‘withholding' of your own status, in the case of the porn star character. It's silence — and it kills. In many ways — although we're 25 years into the epidemic — stigma, shame and denial still prevail. And a film like 3 Needles says [that] stigma is still killing people. Ignorance is still killing people, and lack of access is still killing people.”

Fitzgerald hopes that the film will encourage audiences to look at the epidemic in a new, better-informed way. “It's about why we don't come together to fight AIDS, as a human race,” he says. “The fact that we don't identify it as a common enemy because it is so different from place to place. Tell an African that AIDS is somehow a gay disease, at all, and they won't know what you're talking about. I think all these years later, hopefully if we could just identify it as a common enemy we could set aside the differences.”

Dr. Hill's feelings are similar. “I think the power for me of this film is that it really shows us the intricacies of community — and that's really what health or lack of health is. It impacts not an individual, ever — it really does impact neighbors and family and boyfriends and all of the people in a community.”

She concludes, “3 Needles is a wonderful opportunity for us to promote a really phenomenal … work, but also to get the message out that's it's not over, that it's impacting many communities, and that knowledge is still the best weapon.”

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