Positive Response

Where style meets substance

The nice thing about having a serious disease," says Peter Adair in his new documentary, ''Absolutely Positive," ''is you can say anything you want and people put up with it." The film, a heart-wrenching visit with HIV-positives, airs on PBS's P.O.V. June 18 and on the BBC's Final Cut this fall. As the movie's engrossing talking heads—a diverse bunch of

married folk, IV-drug users, and gay men (including Adair)—muse about their predicament, the emotions run from terror to denial to anger to inspirational bravery. Adair says, ''If you can talk to the heart, then the feet and the head will follow. I didn't think going into how little the government has done (about AIDS] would be as effective as telling these stories. They really bum into the memory."

MICHAEL MUSTO