AN enthusiastic response to the screening of Gayby Baby at Dubbo has encouraged the Connected Communities Project's (CCP) Rainbow Alliance to roll the dice again.
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It has set about bringing Holding the Man to Reading Cinemas on World AIDS Day, December 1.
A further 68 bookings must be made at www.tugg.com/ events/76562# by November 16 to secure the one-off screening.
Holding the Man is based on Tim Conigrave's cult classic and best-selling memoir of the same name.
It tells of his 15-year love affair with John Caleo, beginning in the 1970s when they were students at Melbourne's all-boy Xavier College.
Conigrave was an aspiring actor and Caleo the captain of the football team.
The book was published in 1995 after the death of both men, diagnosed HIV-positive in 1985.
Rainbow Alliance spokesman Nicholas Steepe has asked the people who turned out for Gayby Baby to back up for Holding the Man, but with more Dubbo residents in tow.
Gayby Baby looked at gay families through the eyes of four children growing up in them.
Dubbo residents' interest in the film required its screening in a bigger theatre than originally intended.
Mr Steepe said World AIDS Day raised awareness of issues surrounding HIV and AIDS and provided the opportunity to support people living with HIV and to commemorate people who had died.
"We decided to screen the film on World AIDS Day because a lot of the themes within the book tie into that," he said.
The movie adaption of Holding the Man was released in August with Ryan Corr playing Tim Conigrave and Craig Stott as John Caleo.
"Holding the man" is an AFL term that refers to a tackle on an opponent when he is not carrying the ball. The CCP seeks to reduce suicide in the bush through initiatives like Rainbow Alliance that works to prevent social isolation and exclusion of LGBTIQA people through events.
