Zero Patience

John Greyson’s fantasy musical Zero Patience explores the case of Gaëtan Dugas, a Quebecois flight attendant who was erroneously labeled “Patient Zero” for the AIDS epidemic in the US. By framing the story through the efforts of immortal explorer and museum curator Sir Richard Francis Burton to exhibit Dugas’ story in his “Hall of Contagion,” Greyson exposes the flaws in public narratives about disease that position marginalized communities as scapegoats rather than canaries in the proverbial coal mine. 

A playful hybrid of activism and entertainment, Zero Patience polarized critics upon its release in 1993 but has since been hailed as an important work of New Queer Cinema.