“I’m just a little guy, I can’t do anything,” apes Dr. Mathilde Krim, the pioneering research scientist who was one of the first to tackle HIV/AIDS. Describing the thinking of the vast majority of the public in Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman’s stirring new documentary, The Battle of amfAR for HBO, currently premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival, she pauses, and then reminds us softly in her own quiet, engaging way, “Everybody can do something.”

The other subject in this documentary, a tribute to two modern-day Valkyries taking on a global epidemic almost singlehandedly, is none other than Elizabeth Taylor. If anyone ever doubted the passion of this beautiful and magnetic star to take on the United States Congress, they only need to hear her proclaim that in a society “that claims to value human life above all else, the deliberate wholesale denial of the means of self-protection is not just passive neglect; it is a measured act of premeditated murder.”

Two women, who managed in the 1980s to change a landscape so muddled in confusion, rage and blinding fear against a disease no one understood, to an atmosphere of hope and public activism, is a truly remarkable tale. The partnership of Epstein and Friedman, which began in San Francisco in 1987 with the founding of Telling Pictures, is equally impressive. Previous accolades such as The Celluloid Closet, which won the Sundance Freedom of Expression Award and Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, winning an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, had prepared them well to take on the challenge of telling amfAR’s story. Then when fashion designer and activist Kenneth Cole approached them about a film of two women from different worlds coming together to create something so much bigger than themselves, they jumped at the chance. Beyond Taylor and Krim, their star players, they began to gather a notable supporting cast of subjects.

Dr. Mervyn Silverman, the director of public health in the early ’70s San Francisco remembers the Castro District like Times Square at New Year’s Eve. By 1982, the scene had become transformed, with many of the same revelers walking down the street with the support of canes. Dr. Krim was working as a researcher in New York when a colleague first informed him of a new mutant virus attacking the immune system of his gay patients. Krim was shocked but having been shaken by the early sight of concentration camp victims, this Swiss-born humanitarian was hardly deterred. Married to Arthur Krim, the head of United Artists and Orion Films, she and her spouse had long been civil rights activists and philanthropists. She immediately went into action.

For men like Richard Berkowitz, an AIDS activist who co-authored the 1982 book, How to Have Sex in an Epidemic, Krim reminded him of Billie Burke from The Wizard of Oz, ”descending in her bubble over Munchkin land, trying to help, and she did.”

When Krim called Taylor, the star immediately climbed on board. According to her publicist Sally Morrison, actor Rock Hudson — fast ailing from the disease — had been like a brother to Taylor and she was “devastated” by his prolonged torment. (Most of the early funding came from Hudson and the Krims to set up the foundation.) Dr. Jeffrey Laurence, a professor of medicine and director of the laboratory for AIDS Virus Research at Cornell University as well as chairing amfAR’s scientific advisory committee for several years, remembered how Taylor would throw parties on behalf of the cause, one in an S&M gay club in Florence. In one address, she joked by saying that she “didn’t usually welcome the opportunity to speak to members of the media” but if she could use her fame to make people listen, she would do it. Feisty and irrepressible, one still shot shows Taylor hanging out of her convertible, confronting an unwanted trespasser with the iconic middle finger.

Krim was a highly visible figure in her own right. She appeared in Gay Pride parades and became enamored with a handsome he-man decked out in his leather straps. In one scene, Krim is throwing a dinner party where Woody Allen is introduced to a tall glamorous woman living with AIDS. Krim presents her as a horsewoman and Allen quickly asks if she has a carousel — the only kind of steed he’ll ride. But the inclusion of these recollections in the film do not trivialize the seriousness and compassion Krim always demonstrated. In one interview, she made it clear that she wasn’t there to make headlines but if the audiences could walk away with “how little has been done so far,” she would be happier.

amfAR did a lot. What the government couldn’t do in a couple of years, amfAR could turn around in a couple of months. But it was a very rocky road. Krim remembers the Reagan administration very well. By amfAR staging a tribute to Taylor, the Reagans made an appearance — the first and perhaps only time Reagan mentioned the word AIDS — and what he would do on its behalf. Krim refers to his lack of response at that time as “miserable.”

But there were brighter moments as well. When 14-year-old Ryan White was kept out of school as an HIV victim because of his contraction of the disease as a hemophiliac, amfAR went into high gear. The Ryan White Care Act was passed and in Ted Kennedy’s words, “in Ryan White, the good guys won.”

The only meaningful grants at that time were through amfAR’s efforts. Dr. Ned Landau, professor of microbiology at the New York University School of Medicine was a grant recipient in the discovery of the CR co-receptor, which ultimately contributed to the only person — the “Berlin patient” — cured of HIV. The insidious virus, Landau warns, has the physical ability to attach itself to our DNA. “It becomes part of us and we can’t get rid of it.”

The film is strongest when it delivers the personal touch, such as a surprising interview with Aileen Getty, an early amfAR volunteer and former daughter-in-law of Taylor, who contritely admits to having cheated on Taylor’s son and finding that Taylor was never anything but understanding and compassionate to her during their long relationship.

The running time of this important documentary is only 40-minutes but to Epstein and Friedman’s credit, they have managed to give a powerful abbreviated history of the disease and the efforts to stop it in that short interval. Intercuts of Krim and Taylor at different stages of their lives in this struggle keep reminding the viewer of the vital role they played. These “bits” are worth watching but more footage devoted to these pivotal subjects would have strengthened the overall effect. One can only hope that these filmmakers will consider a longer and even more substantial piece on the topic.

Though Elizabeth Taylor passed away in 2011, Dr. Krim continues unabated in her efforts to rid the world of this plague. Medical advances have transformed the disease from a death sentence into a chronic but manageable condition for many. But every 10 minutes someone is infected with HIV and over 34 million people are living with it today. Krim and her intrepid band play on.

Rating: 4 out of 4 stars

(“The Battle of amfAR” is playing at the SVA Theatre on Wednesday, April 24, located at 333 West 23rd Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues. “The Battle of amfAR” will premiere on HBO in December of 2013. For ticket and time schedule information please visit http://tribecafilm.com/festival.)

Featured image: Elizabeth Taylor in the HBO documentary “The Battle of amfAR.” Photo Courtesy: HBO.

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