See Buddies Saturday, March 23 at Wake Forest University at 7 p.m. in the Byrum Welcome Center.

At first, this watershed film — representing a genre now known as queer cinema — seems simplistic, or even slight, but very quickly it becomes engrossing and deeply moving.

Buddies, released in 1985, was the first film released about HIV/AIDS and recounts the story of a friendship that emerges between a gay man who signs up to become a “buddy” with an AIDS patient by visiting him in the hospital at a time when people had many questions and fears about the disease but little information.

David Schachter, who plays one of the lead characters, and Roe Bressan, the sister of director Authur J. Bressan Jr., will participate in a Q & A session following the screening. This was the first and only movie role for Schachter, who is now a dean at New York University.

This free screening comes to the Triad from a partnership between OUT at the Movies, Wake Forest University, Wake Forest University Medical Center, and Positive Wellness Alliance.

Public parking is plentiful and free at the Byrum Welcome Center, which is located near the Reynolda Road entrance of Wake Forest University.