House of Numbers

{{DenialismSide}}
'''''House of Numbers''''' is a 2009 film directed and produced by Brent Leung, which purports to objectively examine [[HIV denialism|the hypothesis that HIV causes AIDS]]. Of course, what it turns out to actually be is a "weaselly support pamphlet for AIDS denialists"<ref>{{cite news |first=Jeanette |last= Catsoulis |title=AIDS Seen From a Different Angle  |url=http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/09/04/movies/04house.html |work = [[New York Times]]  |date=4 September 2009  |accessdate=3 September 2009}}</ref> and "a dreary and pernicious piece of AIDS denialist propaganda."<ref>{{cite web | work = [[The Guardian]] | first = Ben | last = Goldacre | authorlink = Ben Goldacre | title = House of Numbers | date = September 26, 2009 | accessdate = September 27, 2009 | url = http://www.badscience.net/2009/09/house-of-numbers/}}</ref>

The film consists mostly of Leung interviewing a range of scientists and HIV denialists, including [[Christine Maggiore]], an HIV-positive denialist whose 3-year-old daughter died of untreated AIDS, and [[Irony|who herself succumbed]] to AIDS-induced pneumonia before the film was released, although her death is only mentioned in small print in the closing credits along with a [[Bullshit|claim]] that it was "unrelated to HIV."<ref name="lancet">{{cite journal | journal = Lancet Infect Dis | title = House of Numbers | volume = 9 | issue = 12 | year = 2009 | pages = 735 | url = http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099%2809%2970316-0/fulltext | author = Burki T}}</ref>

The film makes liberal use of [[cherry-picking]], and many of the scientists interviewed for the film complained that they had been interviewed under false pretenses, and that their answers to Leung's questions were selectively edited to convey a false impression that the scientific community disagrees on the basic facts about HIV/AIDS.<ref name="lancet"/> Two interviewees later cited examples supporting the allegation that Leung misrepresented their words in a "surely [[Deceit|intentional]]" manner.<ref>{{cite web | publisher = Aidstruth.org | title = Constantine and Weiss pinpoint misrepresentations | date = November 26, 2009 | accessdate = November 27, 2009 | url = http://www.aidstruth.org/features/2009/constantine-and-weiss}}</ref> A panel discussion of the film at a Boston film festival was disrupted by Leung and other HIV/AIDS denialists in the audience, who attempted to shout down members of the panel they disagreed with.<ref>{{cite news | url = http://baywindows.com/crazy-house-90259 | work = Bay Windows | first = Ethan | last = Jacobs | date = April 22, 2009 | accessdate= September 8, 2009 | title = Crazy 'House'}}</ref>

Reaction from the scientific community was, predictably, negative. Someone should really take the time to rebut all the arguments individually, but basically it's just the HIV/AIDS denialist version of ''[[Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed|Expelled]]''.

==External links==
*[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1311710/ ''House of Numbers'' on IMDb]
*[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLthPsWmE3cec-DqXSC8sT3hCW9c9Zu4v8 Debunking the AIDS Denialist Movie House of Numbers] on [[YouTube]]

==References==
{{reflist}}
{{title-italics}}
{{stub|denialism}}
[[Category:Films]]
[[Category:HIV/AIDS]]

Categories: Films, HIV/AIDS