East Bay Premiere, Artists in Person Media can be an expensive form of personal therapy, but Bay Area documentarian Peter Adair economizes by spreading the costs across the universal. When Adair tested HIV positive, he sought a reconciliation with the dormant virus. This lead him (à la Word Is Out) to interview dozens of others about their own revelations. The voices of Absolutely Positive are rich, plucky and heartbreaking, cutting across all cultural lines. There is the working-class woman, infected through a tainted blood transfusion, who decides to drink herself silly until a new-found courage pushes aside the bottle. There is the gay man of strict Catholic upbringing who sees those who have sat through the long vigils of death as transcendent "angels." There is the gutsy black woman, drug-free for seven years, whose infant son tests positive, the past coming back to haunt her. Connecting these voices is Adair's own, sometimes pained, sometimes droll. He talks his way through the quagmire of emotions, the panic, denial, guilt, anger, and, finally, the clarity that nearness of death can inspire. Absolutely Positive is not personal therapy, though-it's definitely a group session. --Steve Seid