Documentary Review: Quiet Heroes

By Shea Robinson | Fiction Department, Central Library

Quiet Heroes documents the extensive efforts of Dr. Kristen Ries, an infectious disease specialist, and Maggie Snyder, PA-C, during the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Salt Lake City, Utah. Due to the area’s religious conservatism and fear of ostracism, a large percentage of the gay community lived in secret and had no access to HIV/AIDS medical treatment. After diagnosing her first patient with HIV in 1982, Dr. Ries became the only medical professional within Utah willing to treat HIV/AIDS patients.

Her caseload grew so rapidly that she immediately required the support of another physician to manage it efficiently. With no physicians in the area willing to partner with her, she asked Maggie Snyder—then a nurse—if she would become a physician’s assistant. Backed by the Catholic nuns of the Holy Cross Hospital, the two women cared for thousands of patients that were unable to find treatment elsewhere within the state of Utah.

While there are numerous documentaries that highlight the stigma and discrimination that HIV/AIDS patients faced during the '80s and '90s, Quiet Heroes is unique in its approach of complementing that narrative by shifting the spotlight to the emergence of a heroic response to that injustice. This documentary can be found on Kanopy.