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Daybreak (1993 film)

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Daybreak
Genre
Based onBeirut
by Alan Bowne
Written byStephen Tolkin
Directed byStephen Tolkin
Starring
Music byMichel Colombier
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Production
Executive producers
ProducerJohn Bard Manulis
CinematographyTom Sigel
Editors
  • Brunilda Torres
  • Lois Freeman-Fox
Running time91 minutes
Production companyHBO Showcase
Budget$3 million[1]
Original release
NetworkHBO
ReleaseMay 8, 1993 (1993-05-08)

Daybreak is a 1993 American sci-fi thriller television film written and directed by Stephen Tolkin, based on the 1987 Off-Broadway play Beirut by Alan Bowne. It stars Moira Kelly, Cuba Gooding Jr., Martha Plimpton, and Omar Epps, and aired on HBO on May 8, 1993.

Plot

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The film is set in the near future in a more authoritarian United States. It deals with the social persecution and criminalization of people who are infected with a sexually transmitted infection similar to HIV. Those who test positive for the disease are forcibly placed into quarantine camps. In the quarantine camps they are tattooed with a P by the authorities to indicate their positive status and shot if they try to escape. The quarantine camps are dilapidated places where patients are left to die without care or contact with the outside world.

Blue is a young woman who earns a living scavenging metal in the city. She goes with a friend who wants to be tested to a Helping Hand clinic. The clinic has the sinister slogan "Making your hard choices easier". Outside the clinic they are given a card warning them against getting tested there. The card demands "Why is sickness a crime? Why is hospital a prison? Why does the helping hand hold a gun?". Blue is disturbed by this warning and meets an activist in the resistance called Torch.

The resistance works to prevent the quarantine of those who are positive. They arrange testing outside the official system so that they will not be quarantined. They rescue people being held by the Helping Hand clinic in order to give them medicine, care, and understanding. They distribute condoms and clean needles to help prevent the spread of the disease. This is contrasted with government advertisements for the Helping Hand clinics that threaten "The only way is not to play".

A relationship develops between Blue and Torch and it is revealed that Torch is positive. Torch is arrested because of his activism and when the police discover that he is positive they send him to quarantine. Blue sneaks into the quarantine in order to see Torch. Blue wants to be infected by Torch so that they can live together inside the quarantine camp, but Torch is reluctant to infect Blue. In the end she escapes at his urging and continues the fight on the outside.[2]

Cast

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Production

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Filming took place in New York City, including Lower Manhattan.[1][3]

References

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  1. ^ a b Hall, Jane (May 2, 1993). "A Once and Future Plague: HBO's 'Daybreak' is an allegory that treats AIDS in a political context". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on October 11, 2020. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
  2. ^ Tolkin, Stephen (1993-05-08), Daybreak (Action, Drama, Romance), Moira Kelly, Cuba Gooding Jr, Martha Plimpton, HBO Showcase, retrieved 2024-09-09
  3. ^ Everett, Todd (May 7, 1993). "Daybreak". Variety. Archived from the original on October 20, 2021. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
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