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{{short description|1993 musical Canadian film by John Greyson}}
{{good article}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = Zero Patience
| image          = ZPPoster.jpg
| alt            = Poster show a bare chested man with both hands on his head, yelling.
| caption        = Original theatrical poster
| director       = [[John Greyson]]
| producer       = {{ubl|[[Alexandra Raffé]] ([[executive producer]])|[[Louise Garfield]]|[[Anna Stratton]]}}
| writer         = [[John Greyson]]
| starring       = {{ubl|John Robinson|[[Normand Fauteux]]|[[Dianne Heatherington]]|[[Richardo Keens-Douglas]]|[[Brenda Kamino]]|[[Michael Callen]]|[[Marla Lukofsky]]|[[Von Flores]]}}
| music          = [[Glenn Schellenberg]]
| cinematography = [[Miroslaw Baszak]]
| editing        = [[Miume Jan]]
| distributor    = [[Strand Releasing]]
| released       = {{Film date|1993|09|11|[[Toronto International Film Festival|Festival of Festivals]]}}
| runtime        = 95 minutes
| country        = Canada
| language       = {{ubl|English|French}}
| budget         = 
}}

'''''Zero Patience''''' is a 1993 Canadian [[musical film]] written and directed by [[John Greyson]]. The film examines and refutes the [[urban legend]] of the alleged introduction of [[HIV]] to North America by a single individual, [[Gaëtan Dugas]]. Dugas, better known as Patient Zero, was the target of blame in the popular imagination in the 1980s in large measure because of [[Randy Shilts]]'s American television film docudrama, ''[[And the Band Played On]]'' (1987), a history of the early days of the [[AIDS]] epidemic. ''Zero Patience'' tells its story against the backdrop of a romance between a time-displaced Sir [[Richard Francis Burton]] and the ghost of "Zero" (the character is not identified by Dugas' name).

Produced in partnership with the [[Canadian Film Centre]], the [[Canada Council]], [[Telefilm Canada]] and the [[Ontario Film Development Corporation]], ''Zero Patience'' opened to mixed reviews but went on to win a number of prestigious Canadian film awards. The film has been the subject of critical attention in the context of both film theory and [[queer theory]], and is considered part of the informal [[New Queer Cinema]] movement.<ref>{{cite book
  | editor-last =Aaron 
  | editor-first =Michele
  | title =New Queer Cinema: A Critical Reader
  | publisher =Rutgers University Press
  | year =2004
  | page =4
  | isbn = 0-8135-3486-0}}</ref>

==Plot summary==
[[Victorian era|Victorian]] adventurer and [[Sexology|sexologist]] Sir [[Richard Francis Burton]] (John Robinson), following an "unfortunate encounter" with the [[Fountain of Youth]] in 1892, is 170 years old and living in Toronto, Canada. Burton, now living and working as the chief [[Taxidermy|taxidermist]] at a [[museum of natural history]], is searching for a centerpiece display for an exhibit in his Hall of Contagion. He comes up with the idea of featuring AIDS and the [[Index case|Patient Zero]] hypothesis. Accepting the popular belief that Zero introduced the virus to North America, Burton sets out to collect video footage from those who knew Zero to support the hypothesis. When Zero's doctor ([[Brenda Kamino]]), mother ([[Charlotte Boisjoli]]) and former airline colleague Mary ([[Dianne Heatherington]]), who is now with [[ACT UP]], all refuse to demonize Zero, Burton manipulates the footage to make it appear as if they do and includes doctored photographs of Zero showing signs of [[Kaposi's sarcoma]]. He presents this preliminary version to the press.

The ghost of Zero ([[Normand Fauteux]]) materializes at a local [[gay bathhouse]]. No one can see or hear him, until Zero runs into Burton while Burton is spying on Zero's friend George. Zero realizes that Burton can see him, although Zero does not show up on Burton's video camera. The two strike a deal; Zero agrees to help Burton with his Patient Zero exhibit if Burton finds a way to make Zero appear.

The two return to the museum where Burton makes a ridiculous attempt to seduce Zero to ensure his participation. Rejecting his advances, Zero examines some of the other exhibits (including displays on [[Typhoid Mary]] and the [[Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male|Tuskegee syphilis study]]) before finding an [[African green monkey]], another suspected early AIDS vector. The monkey ([[Marla Lukofsky]]) angrily denounces Zero for scapegoating her just as he has been scapegoated. Zero turns to Burton and they make love.

Under pressure from his director and the exhibit's drug manufacturer sponsor, Burton steals Zero's medical records in hopes of discovering new information. Zero and Burton examine an old blood sample of Zero's under a microscope and discover Miss HIV ([[Michael Callen]]), who points out that the original study that was used to label Patient Zero as the first person to bring HIV to North America did not prove any such thing, but instead helped prove that HIV was sexually transmitted, leading to the development of [[Safe sex|safer sex]] practices. Under this interpretation, Zero could be lauded as a hero for his candor in participating in that original study. As Burton ponders this, an unknown fluid squirts from the eye pieces of the microscope, drenching Zero and making him appear on video. He joyously declares his innocence on tape but the effect only lasts five minutes before he fades away again. Zero angrily accuses Burton of not caring for him at all and only wanting to use him for the exhibit, then storms out.

Burton fails to complete the revised Patient Zero exhibit before its scheduled opening date. The museum curator substitutes the original presentation instead over Burton's protests, leading to a renewed rush of press scapegoating Zero. The night after the exhibit opens, Mary and other ACT UP members break into the Hall of Contagion and trash the exhibit. Zero returns and Burton explains that he tried to stop the exhibit. Zero forgives Burton but says he wants to disappear again completely. Zero merges with his disfigured video image and, smoking a cigarette inside the video, sets off the fire alarm. The sprinklers destroy the video player and Zero vanishes.

A major subplot involves George ([[Richardo Keens-Douglas]]), a French teacher and former intimate of Zero's. George is losing his sight to [[cytomegalovirus]] and is taking a drug that is manufactured by a company that, as a member of ACT UP, George is protesting. George struggles through the film to resolve his conflicted feelings over this, his guilt over abandoning Zero during the final days of his illness and his fear that the same thing will happen to him.

==Cast==
* John Robinson as Sir Richard Burton
* Normand Fauteux as Zero
* Dianne Heatherington as Mary
* Richardo Keens-Douglas as George
* Charlotte Boisjoli as Maman, Zero's mother
* [[Brenda Kamino]] as Dr. Cheng, Zero's doctor
* Michael Callen as Miss HIV
* Marla Lukofsky as African Green Monkey
* Von Flores as Ray (ACT UP member)
* Scott Hurst as Michael (ACT UP member)
* Duncan McIntosh as Ross (ACT UP member)

Real-life television journalist [[Ann Medina]] has a brief role as a television reporter. Co-producer Louise Garfield makes a cameo appearance playing a virus, co-producer Anna Stratton appears as a drug company executive and composer [[Glenn Schellenberg]] plays a bathhouse attendant.

==Production==
John Greyson became interested in offering a counterpoint to the Patient Zero story as early as 1987, when the Patient Zero [[meme]] began entering the public consciousness following the publication of Randy Shilts's book ''And the Band Played On''. The book described the [[cluster analysis|cluster study]] which led to the popular identification of flight attendant Gaëtan Dugas as the vector through which HIV was first brought to North America. Shilts himself never claimed that Dugas was the first. In early 1991 Greyson was given a development grant for the script from the Canadian Film Centre, of which Greyson is an alumnus. Over the next year Greyson, in collaboration with Film Centre partners [[Louise Garfield]] and [[Anna Stratton]], continued to develop the script, eventually presenting it with producer [[Alexandra Raffé]] in a [[workshop]] format. During the first half of 1992, the production team secured additional development funding from the Canada Council, Telefilm Canada and the Ontario Film Development Corporation. By June of that year the script and the songs were completed and that autumn, with funds from the Telefilm Canada and OFDC grants along with revenue from the sale of British broadcast rights to [[Channel 4]], pre-production and casting got underway. Principal photography began in November 1992 and wrapped after five weeks. Sneak previews took place at the [[Seattle International Film Festival]] and a number of [[LGBT]] film festivals across the United States before its official debut in September 1993 at [[Toronto]]'s [[Toronto International Film Festival|Festival of Festivals]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Ward |first=Roxane |title=Zero Patience |work=Playback magazine |publisher=Brunico Communications |date=1993-09-13 |url=http://www.playbackmag.com/articles/magazine/19930913/3081.html |access-date=2016-02-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081014010559/http://www.playbackmag.com/articles/magazine/19930913/3081.html |archive-date=October 14, 2008 }}</ref>

In dedicating the film's soundtrack album to performer and AIDS activist [[Michael Callen]] and other friends they had lost to the disease, Greyson, composer Glenn Schellenberg and producers Garfield and Stratton explained their reasons for making the film. "We wanted to explode the opportunistic myth of Patient Zero....More importantly, we wanted to celebrate the courage and sass of an international AIDS activist movement that has tirelessly fought for the rights of people living with AIDS."<ref>{{cite AV media notes
 |title      = Zero Patience: A Musical About AIDS
 |others   = Greyson and Schellenberg
 |year       = 1994
 }}</ref>

==Critical reception==
''Zero Patience'' garnered mixed critical reaction.<ref>{{cite web
  | title =Zero Patience (1993)
  | publisher =rottentomatoes.com
  | url =http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/zero_patience/
  | access-date =  2007-11-25}}</ref> The ''Austin Chronicle'' cited a "murky plot, frequently weak acting and often mediocre music" while still praising the film's "spunk, humor, enthusiasm and wit."<ref>{{cite news 
  | last =Baumgarten
  | first =Marjorie
  | title =Zero Patience
  | work =Austin Chronicle
  | date =1994-04-01
  | url =http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Calendar/Film?Film=oid%3a138869
  | access-date =  2007-11-25}}</ref> The ''Washington Post'' compared ''Zero Patience'' unfavorably to Hollywood's big-budget, big-star AIDS-themed film, ''[[Philadelphia (film)|Philadelphia]]'', claiming that the latter's protagonist Andrew Beckett "looked sick, dealt with his illness and allowed the audience to sympathize," unlike the "healthy hoofers" of the musical who, because they didn't look sick enough, "[seem] to deny some of the grim realities" of the disease.<ref>{{cite news 
  | last =Kempley
  | first =Rita
  | title =Zero Patience
  | newspaper =Washington Post
  | date =1994-06-10
  | url =https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/zeropatiencenrkempley_a0a46a.htm
  | access-date =  2007-11-25}}</ref> In a contrary favorable opinion, London's ''Time Out Film Guide'' praised the film for "slyly inverting popular wisdom" to "offer a sassy commentary on the epidemic of blame" and calling ''Zero Patience'' "a film which engages your mind as much as your heart, and leaves you laughing."<ref>{{cite web
  | last =Andrew
  | first =Geoff
  | title =Zero Patience (1993)
  | work =Time Out Film Guide
  | publisher =Time Out London
  | url =http://www.timeout.com/film/reviews/78525/zero_patience.html
  | access-date =2007-11-25
  | archive-date =2008-03-18
  | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20080318060928/http://www.timeout.com/film/reviews/78525/zero_patience.html
  | url-status =dead
  }}</ref> Similarly, ''[[The New York Times]]'' lauded the film's "loopy buoyancy," praising the songs as a "bouncy stylistic hybrid of [[Gilbert and Sullivan]], [[Ringo Starr]], [[The Kinks]] and the [[Pet Shop Boys]]."<ref>{{cite news 
  | last =Holden
  | first =Stephen
  | title =A Musical About AIDS Crammed With Ideas
  | work =New York Times
  | date =1994-03-26
  | url =http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?_r=2&res=9F0DE2D81E3CF935A15750C0A962958260&oref=slogin
  | access-date =  2007-11-25}}</ref>

''Zero Patience'' was honored as the Best Canadian Film and Best Ontario Feature at the 1993 [[Cinéfest]] and was awarded a Special Jury Citation as Best Canadian Feature Film at the [[1993 Toronto International Film Festival|1993 Festival of Festivals]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia
  | title =Zero Patience
  | encyclopedia =The Canadian Encyclopedia Online
  | publisher =Historica Foundation
  }}</ref> Greyson dedicated his award to the memory of [[Jay Scott]], the influential film critic who had died of AIDS a few months earlier.<ref>"Critic Jay Scott is not forgotten as Canadian and foreign film-makers pick up their awards at the Festival of Festivals". ''[[Ottawa Citizen]]'', September 20, 1993.</ref> Director Greyson and composer Glenn Schellenberg were nominated for a 1993 [[Genie Award]] for Best Original Song for the film's theme song "Zero Patience".<ref>{{cite web
 |title=15th Genies Best Original Song 
 |work=Canada's Awards Database 
 |publisher=Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television 
 |date=2006-07-05 
 |url=http://www.academy.ca/hist/history.cfm?categid=17&shownum=15&winonly=0&awards=1&rtype=5&curstep=4 
 |access-date=2007-11-25 
 |url-status=dead 
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070808110300/http://www.academy.ca/hist/history.cfm?categid=17&shownum=15&winonly=0&awards=1&rtype=5&curstep=4 
 |archive-date=2007-08-08 
}}</ref>

===Queer theory===
In examining the film from a queer theory perspective, author Michele Aaron cites ''Zero Patience'' as definitional of one of the New Queer Cinema's central attitudes, the "def[iance] of cinematic convention in terms of form, content and genre."<ref>Aaron p. 4</ref> Aaron goes on to cite the film's musical format as "further subvert[ing] the ways we might expect to be 'entertained' by such serious matters as AIDS, media representation, and the legacy of moralism and sexuality."<ref>Aaron p. 27</ref> Feminist academic and AIDS video producer [[Alexandra Juhasz]] puts forth the film as "an effective critique of the silly [[sensationalism]] used in much reportage of AIDS science [that] fights melodrama and tabloid journalism—with melodrama and tabloid journalism."<ref>{{cite book
  | last =Juhasz 
  | first =Alexandra
  | title =AIDS TV: Identity, Community, and Alternative Video
  | publisher =Duke University Press
  | year =1995
  | pages =129–30
  | isbn = 978-0-8223-1695-4}}</ref> Not all such critical commentary has been positive, with openly gay film scholar [[Robin Wood (critic)|Robin Wood]] (who saw the film when someone very close to him was in the final stages of AIDS) calling the film "misguided on the levels both of conception and execution".<ref>{{cite journal
  | last =Wood
  | first =Robin
  | title =The New Queer Cinema and Gay Culture: Notes from an Outsider
  | journal =Cineaction
  | issue =35
  | pages =2–15
  }}</ref>

== Year-end lists ==
* Top 10 (listed alphabetically, not ranked)&nbsp;– Jimmy Fowler, ''[[Dallas Observer]]''<ref>{{cite news|last=Zoller Seitz|first=Matt|date=January 12, 1995 |title= Personal best From a year full of startling and memorable movies, here are our favorites |work=[[Dallas Observer]]}}</ref>

==Soundtrack==
 {{Infobox album
| name       = ''Zero Patience: A Musical about AIDS''
| type       = soundtrack
| artist     = [[Glenn Schellenberg]] (music and lyrics) <br> [[John Greyson]] (lyrics)
| cover      = Zero Patience.jpg
| alt        = Poster show a bare chested man with both hands on his head, yelling.
| released   = 1994
| recorded   =
| venue      =
| studio     =
| genre      =
| length     = 56 minutes
| label      = [[BMG Music]]
| producer   = [[John Switzer]]
| prev_title =
| prev_year  =
| next_title =
| next_year  =
}}

The ''Zero Patience'' soundtrack was released in 1994. Produced by [[John Switzer]], it includes all of the songs and several pieces of incidental music, along with two [[remix]]es of the film's title song.

===Track listing===
# "Zero Patience [Moulton Lava Club Remix]"
# "Arabian Nights" - Instrumental
# "Just Like Scheherazade" - Zero
# "Culture of Certainty" - Richard Burton
# "Pop-A-Boner" - Bathhouse trio
# "Control" - Mary and ACT UP
# "George's Theme" - Instrumental
# "Pop-A-Boner [Reprise #1]" - Bathhouse trio
# "Butthole Duet" - Richard Burton and Zero
# "Positive" - George and schoolchildren
# "Drowning Sailors' Theme" - Instrumental
# "Love Theme" - Instrumental
# "Contagious" - African Green Monkey
# "Pop-A-Boner [Reprise #2]" - Bathhouse trio
# "Scheherazade (Miss HIV)" - Miss HIV
# "Six or Seven Things" - Richard Burton and Zero
# "Zero Patience" - Principal cast
# "Scheherazade (Tell a Story)" - Principal cast
# "Zero Patience [Extended Burn Remix]"

==See also==
*[[HIV and AIDS misconceptions]]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==Further reading==
* Padva, Gilad. "Uses of Nostalgia in Musical Politicization of Homo/Phobic Myths in ''Were the World Mine'', ''The Big Gay Musical'', and ''Zero Patience''{{-"}}. In Padva, Gilad, ''Queer Nostalgia in Cinema and Pop Culture'', pp.&nbsp;139–172 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, {{ISBN|978-1-137-26633-0}}).

== External links ==
* {{IMDb title | id=0108649 | title=Zero Patience}}
* {{rotten-tomatoes|id=zero_patience|title=Zero Patience}}

{{AIDS}}
{{John Greyson}}

[[Category:1990s musical fantasy films]]
[[Category:1993 LGBTQ-related films]]
[[Category:1993 films]]
[[Category:Canadian Film Centre films]]
[[Category:Canadian LGBTQ-related films]]
[[Category:Canadian musical fantasy films]]
[[Category:English-language Canadian films]]
[[Category:1990s English-language films]]
[[Category:1990s French-language films]]
[[Category:Films directed by John Greyson]]
[[Category:HIV/AIDS in Canadian films]]
[[Category:LGBTQ-related fantasy films]]
[[Category:LGBTQ-related musical films]]
[[Category:1990s Canadian films]]
[[Category:French-language Canadian films]]
[[Category:English-language musical fantasy films]]
[[Category:1993 musical films]]