Movies allow us to take in sweeping views, armies of thousands, ancient lands that no longer exist, and magical ones that never did. But they also give us a lens into microscopic levels of human intimacy so we can share in the triumphs and tribulations of complex individuals.

It’s this second quality of cinema that has made it a perfect art to memorialize, teach, inspire, and recount the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, by bringing audiences into the close confines of personal victories, private suffering, and the hideous, human immediacy of an epidemic that ravaged a generation of gay Americans.

A number of films have memorialized that time, using the art of moviemaking to reach audiences even today. Here is a list of ten powerful films that tackle the AIDS crisis, after the break.