Telling Our Love Story: AIDS, Adaptation and Neil Armfield's Holding the Man

Timothy Conigrave's bittersweet account of his relationship with John Caleo, coming of age in the 1970s, and HIV/AIDS in the 1980s and early 1990s has been described as 'the great Australian love story' – and Neil Armfield's deftly rendered film adaptation lives up to that status. However, two decades after the original publication of Holding the Man, the new cultural contexts of 2015, including the push for marriage equality, alter the meanings of this beloved Australian classic, writes Dion Kagan.

Additional keywords: queer, same-sex, gay, LGBT, LGBTQIA, memoir, Ryan Corr, Craig Stott, Sarah Snook, Anthony LaPaglia, Kerry Fox, Guy Pearce, Tommy Murphy, Griffin Theatre Company.