Slowing Down

Scott Gale talks about the effect his brother's illness on his own life. We see Adam rehearsing & then presenting "as long as you..." -- a dance piece about living with AIDS which features his mother and dancer Boris Willis. "It's okay  to be sick, be sad, as long as you don't look sick, look sad," he recites with irony. Later, back at the hospital, we wait with him for a doctor's appointment as he free associates about subjects ranging from videography to memory/mortality and form longevity to the quality of life.

Lying in Wait

It's 3:30 a.m. & Adam has been roused by a night sweat. He sets up the camera and talks to the viewer about his nightly routine; he then takes us on a candid tour of his medicine cabinet.  Meeting up later with videographers Chris & Franklin, we learn that the buyer's club is sold out of the new antiviral drug, so we head to a restaurant in Chinatown a meal -- which ends up making Adam sick.  Finally, Adam and his doctor discuss how Adam’s chemotherapy is no longer effective on his Kaposi’s Sarcoma

AIDS Buddy

From his couch & from his bathtub, Adam steers us through an intimate and free-wheeling discussion with his AIDS Buddy, Bill Corey, as Bill cleans the toilet & bathroom sink. Adam, a little skeptical of this instant, new found friend, wants to know why Bill became a Buddy & how he prepared for the role. Bill wants to know what criticisms Adam has of the Buddy program, and also how Adam would feel about dating an HIV negative man. Their conversation leads to such topics as the general perception of PWA's in the gay community, as well as nutrition, hygiene and safe sex.

Pentam

The episode opens with Adam in an alley garbage bin bound with yellow "Caution" tape. This haunting image recurs several times as we sit with him in the hospital while he undergoes his monthly aerosolized Pentamidine treatment. This is a turning point in Adam's health status & he talks frankly about some very personal issues, including his desire to end his own life, about how he thinks he contracted the virus, and about how he wishes other people would threat him.  His final sentiment from the garbage bin hits us hard.

We All Share the Same Moon

We join Adam, his sister Valerie & friends as they paint a group oil/mixed media work. Later, from a hospital bed in his last interview, Adam speaks sometimes cheerfully, sometimes bitterly about his ever worsening health. After his death, two days following his 27th birthday -- his brother Scott recounts the circumstances of his passing as the things in his apartment are carefully packed away. We see Adam's panel at the Memorial Quilt on the Washington Mall, and, as a reprise, Adam dances to a Chopin waltz, en event that was his last public performance.