In the mid-1980s, a simple number and letter designated a ward on the fifth floor of San Francisco General Hospital, the first in the country designed specifically to treat AIDS patients.

5B is the inspirational story of everyday heroes, the nurses and caregivers who took extraordinary action to comfort, protect, and care for the patients of the first AIDS ward unit in the United States. 5B is stirringly told through first-person testimony of these nurses and caregivers who built Ward 5B in 1983 at San Francisco General Hospital, their patients, loved ones, and staff who volunteered to create care practices based in humanity and holistic well-being during a time of great fear and uncertainty. The result is an uplifting yet candid and bittersweet monument to a pivotal moment in American history and a celebration of quiet heroes, nurses and caregivers worthy of remembrance and renewed recognition.

In the 1980s, a new disease ravaged the United States, specifically targeting the gay communities that had spent the decades prior demanding a place in mainstream society. Originally manifesting as an obscure form of cancer, it was eventually understood as an autoimmune disease and given a name: HIV/AIDS.

A nationwide panic followed, and those infected often found themselves subjected to violent abuse as discussion of the disease was inextricably bound up in discussions of homosexuality and homophobia itself. Compounded by the inaction of a federal government that refused to even publicly acknowledge the disease until almost 20,000 people had already died, the disease tore apart gay communities and left a tragic mark on the country that endures to this day. It was at once a national health crisis and a political firestorm that influenced the American discourse on topics as far-ranging as immigration, healthcare policy, and freedom of speech.

A hallmark of this film is its use of restraint to best tell an impactful and emotionally wrought tale in the simplest, most beautiful way possible. We eschewed grand cinematic gestures in favor of taking the audience on an immediate and emotionally stirring experience.

Many of the film’s most expressive moments are revealed through deeply personal interviews shot in relatively tight frames with warm intimate lighting. The effect is to draw viewers into the subject’s eyes to create a sense of bringing viewers into their psychological and emotional state, thereby forming an empathetic connection.

The matching shots of Ward 5B then and now serve to create an interesting textural contrast between the brightness and vitality of life on 5B in the archival footage and the somber, quiet darkness of the now abandoned ward; a purely cinematic technique that magnifies the distance of history and adds emotional weight to the story.