Whenever we think of AIDS, we are immediately drawn back to the 80s when its emergence was at the forefront of Australian media. To say that it was a difficult period would be a major understatement – people were getting the virus left and right, casual sex received a bad reputation and our government hoped …

They’re called Sex on Premises Venues, or SOPVs. As a homogenous idea of ‘gay culture’ is slowly digitised into app-based cruising, and nightclubs struggle to attract the next generation of gay men, can the SOPV endure? And if so, for how long?

Holding the Man counteracted this culture by offering an intimate and unashamed portrait of same-sex love and the pains wrought by the epidemic, demonstrating the ability of love to transcend and persist beyond death.