TOO CLOSE ... FOR COMFORT Produced by Gay Hawley; directed by Peg Campbell Wild Ginger Productions, 1990. VHS cassette, 30:00 min., $375.00 (includes non-theatrical performance rights). Distributed by Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre, 67A Portland St., Toronto, Ont., M5V 2M9. Also available from Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centres in Vancouver and Halifax Grades 9 and up/Ages 14 and up Reviewed by Paul Whitney. Volume 19 Number 5 1991 October It is a real shame that price will limit the availability of Too Close...for Comfort in many libraries. Genie Award winning director Peg Campbell expertly presents the peer group discrimination that befalls a recent high school gradu­ate who is HIV positive. The film begins with Nick being fired from his job and then shows the reaction of his friends to the news that he is HIV positive. Their immediate assumption is that Nick is gay. He ends up isolated from friends and trying to confront their unease and hostility. Two of Nick's more enlightened friends are prompted to make a video on an HIV support group as a result of his condition. The video within the video presents the testimony of HIV positive people including a gay man, intravenous drug user, a hemophiliac and a heterosexual female. A gay couple is also interviewed about being gay and the discrimination they experi­ence. This portion of the film very effectively conveys the humanity of those being interviewed and adds a strong feeling of reality to the proceed­ings. As Nick's friends confront the real world they come to accept both who they are and who their friends are. Too Close…for Comfort is not another AIDS film; for example, there is no discussion of safe sex. The focus is on the discrimination that the disease can foster. The production standards are excellent and the acting is consistently strong. This film deals with a sensitive subject in a straightforward and largely unsentimental way. Too Close...for Comfort deserves wide exposure. The video is accompanied by a fifty-two-page illustrated study guide. Paul Whitney, Burnaby Public Library, Burnaby, B.C.