If you want to understand Dr. Anthony Fauci, you need to understand how two highly infectious diseases impacted the U.S. and, ultimately, shaped the career of the Chief Medical Advisor to President Joe Biden.
That’s the argument of directors Janet Tobias and John Hoffman in the National Geographic documentary "Fauci," which screens for a limited time at San Francisco's Vogue Theatre and across the country beginning Friday. The documentary will then air on Disney+ beginning Oct. 6.
"Our film, most simply, is the story of a man whose character was forged in HIV and tested in COVID," Hoffman told the San Francisco Chronicle in an interview from the Telluride Film Festival following the documentary's Sept. 2 premiere.
Dr. Fauci has been the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, heading the agency as the AIDS epidemic gripped the country in the 1980s and now, with the COVID-19 pandemic still ongoing. He made a point to reach out to activist groups criticizing him as HIV spread among the LGBTQ+ community, earning a standing ovation at the 1990 International AIDS Conference at San Francisco's Moscone Center when he said activists should be included in the drug trial process.
In the trailer for the film, Dr. Fauci cried as he recalled his frustration at "not really fixing anything" during the AIDS epidemic when he was "used to fixing things." Over 700,000 people in the U.S. have died of HIV-related illness, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
"Dr. Fauci was tested in every way possible during the AIDS pandemic, as a doctor, a scientist, a communicator and a leader," Tobias said. "He really listens, and he learns and adjusts what he does from whatever new science or input he receives. He said to me as we were filming that he is always learning, every day."
Dr. Fauci then rose to national prominence as a regular presence in former President Donald Trump's daily coronavirus briefings during the early portions of the coronavirus pandemic, before becoming a regular target of criticism from Trump, elected Republicans, conservative media and their followers.
The filmmakers followed him throughout, even before COVID-19 testing became widespread. Tobias and Hoffman told the paper they filmed Fauci in his office, "where he was often the only one in the building." They also interviewed him alongside his wife, Dr. Christine Grady, and his daughter, Jenny.
Jenny Fauci told the filmmakers she asked her father how the criticism he experienced during the AIDS epidemic compared to now, with the recommendation – let alone the enforcement – of COVID-19 restrictions and mandates so highly politicized.
"His response was, 'You can’t even compare the two. This is so beyond the beyond,' " Jenny Fauci said in the trailer.
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