Dallas Buyers Club is a 2013 American biographical drama film written by Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack, and directed by Jean-Marc Vallée. The film tells the story of Ron Woodroof, a cowboy diagnosed with AIDS in the mid-1980s, a time when both the etiology and the treatment of HIV/AIDS are poorly understood and its sufferers subject to stigmatization. As part of an ongoing experimental AIDS treatment movement, Woodroof smuggles unapproved pharmaceutical drugs into Texas to treat his symptoms. Here, he distributes them to fellow people with AIDS by establishing the "Dallas Buyers Club", all the while facing opposition from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Two fictional supporting characters, Dr. Eve Saks, and Rayon, were composite roles created from interviews with transgender AIDS patients, activists, and doctors. Presidential biographer and PEN-USA winner Bill Minutaglio wrote the first magazine profile of the Dallas Buyers Club in 1992. The article, which featured interviews with Woodroof and also recreated his dramatic international exploits, attracted widespread attention from filmmakers and journalists.
Theatrical release poster
McConaughey at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival premiere
Jared Leto portrays Rayon, a transgender woman in the film
Image: Matthew Mc Conaughey Goldene Kamera 2014 Berlin
Jean-Marc Vallée was a Canadian filmmaker, film editor, and screenwriter. After studying film at the Université du Québec à Montréal, Vallée went on to make a number of critically acclaimed short films, including Stéréotypes (1991), Les Fleurs magiques (1995), and Les Mots magiques (1998).
Vallée at the 2012 Genie Awards