It is heartening to know that in this time of spectacle and trivia, of celebrity voyeurism and gangsta rap, there are still plenty of those who are moved by what can only be described as a class act.

New York was Ground Zero in the 1980s for the activist AIDS movement known as ACT UP, and David France's wrenching documentary, How to Survive a Plague, captures that time as never before with footage he has gathered going 30 years back.

Warhol's peculiar, vapid genius, along with his obsessions with fame, money, and youth, presaged Facebook, American Idol, the Kardashians, and the thousands of online and print organs dedicated to trumpeting every blasphemous burble and trivial pursuit of celebrities.