I just saw this film at the Calgary Film Festival and I loved it. I love the work of Thom Fitzgerald (Hanging Garden). AIDS is well known as a global epidemic, but it is not getting the media attention that it once did in the 80s and 90s. It is left to filmmakers to put a human face to the daily toll caused by this epidemic.<br /><br />3 Needles puts a very human face on the fears and insecurities that cause people to risk their humanity, morality and their lives, to get past the lies that they have to deal with. This film shows very different cases and reactions by people from the first world and third world, facing an unjust world and trying to do their best to get by.<br /><br />I'm somewhat in awe of how gentle the film is, given the death, despair and horrible acts that are occurring all around the central characters. I love the balance of life affirmation--there are 2 births paralleling 2 deaths. There are charitable acts and kindness from unexpected places. There is clear love for family and friends.<br /><br />Stockard Channing is brilliant in this role, Cloe Sevigny and Shawn Ashmore are very good, Lucy Liu's character is so real that you feel like you're really in remote parts of China with her and that most people in her place would do the same things.<br /><br />Please go see this film. You'll be glad you did, and perhaps you'll come away with an understanding of the complexities of the AIDS epidemic and why existing support methods are failing to stem the tide of this situation.