The First Annual 2003 AFRICAN ACTION ON AIDS/NEW YORK AIDS FILM FESTIVAL. Launches september 17th
The aim of the NEW YORK AIDS FILM FESTIVAL is to showcase work from the world film and video community that educates and awakens people to the reality of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the form of short form documentary and feature films.
70% of the festival proceeds will benefit AFRICAN ACTION ON AIDS whose work is twice fold. Firstly providing scholarships to AIDS affected orphans so they can continue in their education. Secondly, supporting already established community organizations that support the orphans by means of functioning as education centers with mentors and free, hot meals. Moreover the centers make AIDS education available through workshops, camps and literature.
The New York AIDS Film festival aims to be a festival where young people, entertainment companies, media and others come to present their agenda and projects on AIDS for the coming year. The festival will be a place where achievement on this topic in television programming and film is rewarded as an encouragement to networks, studios & independent producers to include this subject matter in future productions
FILMS OF THE 2003 NEW YORK AIDS FILM FESTIVAL
NON COMPETITION
THE HOURS – MIRAMAX and PARAMOUNT PICTURES
The Hours takes place in three different periods, each of them evolving one central female character who is closely related to a piece of English literature, Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs. Dalloway, which will change all their lives. The English author herself used The Hours as a working title for a book.
In present day New York City, the intellectual and editor Clarissa Vaughan (Meryl Streep) prepares a party for her friend and former lover, the poet Richard (Ed Harris), who is suffering from AIDS in its final stage. While preparing the reception, she too looks back on her life. She is lesbian, Richard is gay, both tried to find freedom in the arms of same sex lovers and companions. Both failed. www.cosmopolis.ch Louis Gerber
Chosen for Ed Harris’s character portrayal of Richard who is the glue of the women in the hours. The film not only shows Richards reality but that of those who are around him, the learning experience is wide. Moreover the fact that he had AIDS came as part of a life story, his story was not only that of an AIDS victim but that of a man. We need to continue to show characters like Richard to the public as he shows that it can strike anyone even a great poet. There is a stunning humanity and grace to his character.
PHILADELPHIA - COLUMBIA TRI STAR
When it was released, Jonathan Demme's Philadelphia (Tristar Films, 1993), the first film about AIDS from Hollywood, received an extraordinary amount of press coverage and critical scrutiny. Some people in Hollywood and in the media thought that Tom Hanks, who won an Academy Award for best actor in Philadelphia, was taking a career risk in accepting the role of a young Philadelphia lawyer whose career is on the fast track until he is fired from his job because his employer discovers he has AIDS. The Hanks character does refuse to back down in the face of discrimination and wins his legal battle only to die in the film's last scene; but Philadelphia also received criticism, notably in the gay press, for denying the main character the intimacy and emotional complexity that it readily affords other characters who are straight.
AN EARLY FROST - NBC
The first movie about AIDS made for U.S. television was John Erman's An Early Frost (NBC, 1985), which was so groundbreaking that some critics praised actor Aidan Quinn for his bravery in agreeing to play a man with AIDS. The central character in An Early Frost is a gay lawyer with AIDS, but Erman's television movie minimizes the issue of homosexuality, instead focusing on the resiliency of the American family when faced with any crisis, including AIDS. With An Early Frost, American television had its first "AIDS as disease-of-the-week" movie. Others regularly followed, telling both true life and fictional stories about such figures as Liberace, Ryan White, and Roy Cohn.
PANDEMIC - MOXIE FIRE CRACKER
Produced and Directed by Rory Kennedy
Opened theatrically at New York's Film Forum on May 26, 1999.
Premiered on HBO in November, 1999.
PANDEMIC: Facing AIDS is a feature length documentary that takes a unique look at the AIDS epidemic, melding intimate personal stories with a global perspective
The scope of the global AIDS epidemic is staggering. Over the last twenty years, the disease has killed nearly 22 million people. In 2001 alone, 5 million people were newly infected with HIV. Behind these statistics lie the stories of millions of people, each of whom must face the challenges of AIDS in their own way. PANDEMIC follows the lives of five people living with AIDS in different regions of the world, and uses their experiences to put faces behind the numbers, and to connect audiences with the heartache and triumph living under the extreme conditions that AIDS enforces.
AIDS tests people in ways that they would never expect and forces them to engineer minor miracles in the face of doom:
In India, we watch as a former truck driver, debilitated by AIDS, gives strength to his family and his village, and helps face down the prejudice that AIDS engenders. Even more selflessly, he sacrifices his own health to give his pregnant wife his medications.
Our Russian story focuses on a young couple whose use of IV drugs has left them infected with HIV and struggling with their parents for the right to raise their three-year old son. We watch them cope with the epidemic in a country where the true scale of the devastation is just beginning to sink in.
At a Buddhist monastery in Thailand, we get a glimpse of the pain that end-stage AIDS patients suffer by following one former prostitute on her quest to return to her village and die with dignity.
In Uganda, we see how one committed woman uses the power of song to lead AIDS orphans into a better life after their parents have succumbed to the disease.
Finally, our Brazilian story follows a young, gay man who, at 27, takes advantage of Brazil's free HAART therapy and emerges from his first bout with AIDS illness to try and rebuild his health and get back to living.
ODO YA
Produced by Tania Cypriano
Affirming story of how Candomble, a Brazilian religion of African origin, has become a source of strength and power for a group of AIDS sufferers. Shot in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Bahia, it shows the rituals of Candomble and the celebration of Carnival. It features the personal struggles and words of wisdom from those whose faith have brought endurance and pride. Rather than denying the sexuality of this African-descendant population, innovative education programs have been developed for its followers. Where other religions preach abstinence, Candomble advocates the use of condoms so that sexuality need not be repressed.
DOCUMENTARIES (LONG)
A Closer Walk
Director: Robert Bilheimer
President of World Wide Documentaries, he is a director, writer, and Producer with an international background in film, theatre, journalism, and creative writing. As a film maker, he received in 1989 his profession’s highest honor, an Academy Award nomination for Cry of Reason, a feature length documentary focusing on the South African anti-apartheid leader Beyers Naude. Robert Bilheimer’s films focus on subjects of cultural, social, and humanitarian interest.
About the Film:
Subjects and story lines encompass the broad spectrum of the global AIDS experience and include people with HIV/AIDS from all walks of life: AIDS children and orphans and those caring for them; doctors, nurses, and AIDS children and orphans and those caring for them; doctors, nurses, and social workers: human rights advocates; and prominent scientists, economists, researchers, government leaders, and NGO officials. The film’s basic themes remain the underlying causes of AIDS; the relationship between health, dignity, and human rights; and the universal need for action, compassion and commitment to counter what has become the worst plague in human history.
Several universally recognized individuals whose participation in the film will broaden it’s appeal and add substance to its message were interviewed. These include: His Holiness the Dalai Lama, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, and Bono of U2.
Glenn Close and Will Smith are the film’s narrators.
The Fire Within
Director: Leanne Whitney
Running Time: 62 minutes
Leanne graduated from the prestigious University of St. Andrews in Scotland with a degree in statistics. She also spent her time writing, directing and acting in the theatre. Prompted by her passion for the arts, Leanne hightailes it to New York City, where she made her feature film debut in Brad Andersons The Darien Gap, which premiered at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival. The Fire within is Leanne’s documentary directorial debut.
About the Film:
The Fire Within is an illuminating story of two people with singular spirit.
Bowers is a long-term AIDS survivor who was diagnosed in 1983 at the age of 20. He met Shawn 10 years ago and in spite of his disease she married him six months later. To this day she remains HIV-negative. They record Shawn’s participation in a 7 day, 575-mile bike ride as she tries in some measure, to replicate Bob’s everyday battles, his everyday victories.
This is not only a movie about surviving AIDS; this is a movie about thriving-regardless of your circumstances.
The Fire Within parallels their struggles, their challenges, their will to change and their will grow throughout a year in the life of these two incredibly passionate, inspiring and vibrant souls.
PILLS PROFITS PROTEST
Director: Ann T Rossetti and Anne-Christine D’adesky
Ann is a cinematographer, editor, and film maker who began her career in 1993 shooting Rose Troche’s “GO FISH” which is recognized for it’s stunning and stylistic photography. Rosseti’s work continues to thrive on independent film with important social themes.
Anne-Christine d’Adesky is a veteran AIDS journlist covering HIV since 1984. She is the former Editor and founder of HIV Plus, and currently writes for the IAVI Report, Amfar’s Treatment Insider, and POZ magazine.
About the Film
Pills Profits Protest is an up-to-the minute documentary about global AIDS activism. It examines the national an international grass roots activists response to the most important plague of modern time an epidemic that has already overshadowed the Black Death in terms of human lives lost. The movement began in the summer of 2000 at the International AIDS conference held in Durban, South Africa. The Global AIDS movement represents one of the most successful political movements in contemporary history and has produced a new generation of activists coming-to power and as the movement grows, it has mobilized women to become politically active.
The film highlights the struggles of women living with HIV in places like South Africa, Uganda, and how women activists there, partnered with U.S based advocates are organizing to force the global movement to address underlying gender issues that affect their access to care. At the heart of this documentary is a thorny question: can the worls afford universal HIV treatment? At what cost? PPP witnesses the critical junctures in the battle for access to HIV treatment.
SHOUTING SILENT
Director: Xoliswa Sithole and Renee Rosen
Running Time: 52 Films
Xoliswa is an independent producer. She was born in South Africa, but moved to neighboring Zimbabwe at age 3. Growing up in exile, she was encouraged to “dream” and become educated so she could achieve her heart’s desire. Xoliswa graduated from the University of Zimbabwe with a degree in English literature before moving to London where she lived for 5 years.
Xoliswa has worked in film( both documentary and feature) and television production for the past 7 years. Her professional experience ranges the gamut from Hollywood personal assistant and PA to CNN researcher and producer. Shouting Silent is her first full length independent documentary.
Renee is a writer and a director. Born and Raised in Rye Brook, NY. She attended the University of Rochester where she graduated cum laude. It was while pursuing her Master’s degree at the New York University in Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution, that Renee discovered her love for film. It was a perfect fit marrying her idealism for politics and photography.
Renee’s professional experience extends from an internship at Charlie Rose on PBS to a development aid worker in South Africa. While working at Mail and Guardian TV in Johannesburg, she directed her first video, Afribike, an 8 minute film for the World Bank. Shouting Silent is her documentary directorial debut.
About the Film
Shouting Silent examines the AIDS epidemic through the lens of the experience of female aids orphans. It is very much a journey of remembrance and discovery. Remembering Doreen Sithole, the mother of shouting silent producer Xoliswa Sithole, and discovery, examining how the loss of one’s mother to Aids is affecting young girls lives.
The film follows: Xoliswa, Molouwa a 12 yeard old child who lives on the streets of Tembisa, South Africa, Bongi, a 17 year old head of house hold in Kwa-Zulu Natal, and Ntombi Bongi’s 14 year old sister.
Personal and political, their life stories will prompt thought, illicit outrage, and inspire action.
TRAVIS
Director: Richard Kotuk
Running Time: 58 minute
Richard Kotuk, the director of Travis passed away at the age of 55 shortly after the completion of the film in February of this year. His continued contribution and dedication to the art of documentary film making has inspired his audience, colleagues and students and friends; fulfilled and enriched those hearts that shared his passion for life, love and responsibilities for the world as global citizens. For three years, Richard Kotuk followed Travis' life, as he's struggled to survive the AIDS virus, and he has shown great courage, an unwillingness to give up. At the moment, Travis feels good! But the protease inhibitor("cocktail"), he's on, could fail at any time. It is "cat-and-mouse". His doctors try to stay one step ahead of the virus, a brilliant, evil and anthroporm orfic ally -perceived (by the doctors themselves), "being"" almost impossible to outwit in this lethal medical chess game. Richard Kotuk had received thirteen emmy awards for his documentaries and an academy award nomination fro “Children of Darkness”, a national broadcast about mental health care for seriously emotionally-disturbed children in America Kotuk spent eight years producing/directing for Bill Moyers’ Journal and National PBS documentaries and five years with CBS news and CBS reports.
About the Film
Travis Jefferies is a ten-year-old African-American boy with a warm personality, an infectious smile and full-blown AIDS
When we first meet him, Travis is six and has been unable to eat for months due to intractable sores on his mouth, esophagus and stomach. Filmed over the next three years, TRAVIS chronicles his daily life together with his grandmother, Mrs. Geneva Jefferies. They live in Highbridge, a predominantly African American and Latino neighborhood in the South Bronx, in which one of every twenty teenagers is HIV positive. Travis contracted the HIV virus from his mother Samantha, a crack-cocaine user who is largely absent from his life.
The tireless efforts of his grandmother, though, come through forcefully. Mrs. Jefferies, who has worked as a domestic since the ninth grade, has found ways to keep her large family of 11 children and 33 grandchildren together while caring for Travis, ministering to his constant medical needs, and answering his many questions about the very grown-up illness he faces.
The film follows the development of Travis's disease and treatments (during his short life, Travis has taken over 275 different drugs). The anti-retroviral drugs he had been taking, including AZT, begin to lose their effectiveness. His primary care physician Dr. Heidi Beutler at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center decides to treat him with protease inhibitors, powerful anti-viral drugs that have been shown to be successful in adults but have never been tried on children. After a downturn that lasts for weeks, Travis responds well.
TRAVIS captures not only the major medical events of Travis's life but also the small moments which make his disease both incredibly trying and somehow bearable. Travis meets up with friends at the playground, even if it means pulling an electric feeding pump along, and he goes to a special summer camp for children with AIDS. But, we also watch Travis breakdown when he is not allowed to play in the newly-fallen snow, because the health risks are too great.
TRAVIS documents the complex life of a vital child born with HIV/AIDS who, with the help of experimental drug therapy and his grandmother's unwavering love and support struggles to survive and pursue a dignified, happy life.
This intimate portrait of a very special child proved to be the last film by award-winning documentary filmmaker Richard Kotuk.
Late in the film Travis lies on his bed.He is scared of dying.
He says he will miss his grandmother, his cousins and me.
He says he won't come back.He sees his AIDS as a "monster,"'
""It's inside me? ... Now ? " "He's got ugly eyes, and brain on top of his head.
"How they gonna get him out Of me? Huh?"I have no answer.
Travis pauses. He looks into the camera lens."I will fight it," he says.
"Even if it's heavy, I will fight it."'
IT’S MY LIFE
Director: Brian Tilley
Running Time: 72 Minutes
At the beginning of IT'S MY LIFE we learn that there are 4.7 million South Africans currently infected with the HIV virus and, despite the fact that anti-retroviral medicines allow people with HIV to lead almost normal lives, the South African government has failed to provide them in public hospitals and clinics. More damning, the President of the country, Thabo Mbeki, has consistently questioned the link between HIV and AIDS.
It is in this context that Zackie Achmat, the HIV positive acting chairperson of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), has decided not to take anti-retroviral medicines until they are made available by the government in public hospitals and clinics.
Filmed over five months, IT'S MY LIFE follows Zackie as he leads a court battle against the multi-national drug companies to allow the introduction of cheaper, generic drugs, and takes on the South African government for it's confusing policies around HIV/AIDS.
As a leader in the campaign for affordable treatment, Zackie's provocative position is not one all his friends and colleagues support. When Zackie gets ill, everyone wants to know why he refuses to take the medicines that would let him lead a healthier life.
IT'S MY LIFE interweaves personal and public images to provide an intimate look at an internationally profiled defiance campaign and the complexities of its leading figure.
6000 A DAY
Director: Philip Brooks
Running Time: 55 Minutes
Wednesday, January 8, 2003 Philip Brooks died after a battle with hepatitis. Philip had been "crazy, brilliant, disorganized, someone who lived life to the fullest;" a first-rate producer and documentary filmmaker. Philip Brooks was a "committed" cinematographer, at a time when the term had fallen out of use, or even become discredited. In August 2000, he launched the collection "Steps for the Future," with his production company Dominant 7 and Vehkalahti Iika, the Finnish TV documentary producer, and in association with Day Zero Films and Video, the South African film company, comprising some thirty films dealing with AIDS in the southern region of Africa.
With an emphasis on originality, these films were all made by African filmmakers, both experienced and novice auteurs from the townships. One of the films, The Ball ( can be seen in the New York AIDS Film Festival), by Orlando Mesquita, won the special Cannes Junior Jury prize in 2002. But, most importantly, it was the way in which the films were shown, through the circuit of associations dealing with the subject, and in particular, via mobile cinema vans.
About the Film
6000 A DAY - ACCOUNT OF A CATASTROPHE FORETOLD reveals how the world's top decision makers knowingly failed to prevent the spread of the AIDS. It examines the failure of key individuals, prominent NGO's, and governments to act as they allowed a catastrophe to fester - a catastrophe that undoubtedly could have been avoided.
Since it appeared 20 years ago, AIDS has left behind it a trail of destruction. It has already killed 30 million people, and infected another 50 million. By the end of this current decade an estimated 100 million people will have perished from this disease.
Why did the world wait so long to react? This film answers the question, and dissects the key moments in the global response to the epidemic. By examining this human catastrophe, the film reveals a global rift that helped the disease to spread.
6000 A DAY - AN ACCOUNT OF A CATASTROPHE FORETOLD is also about a virus shrouded in taboo and fantasy because of its primary means of transmission: sex. The taboo and stigma surrounding AIDS are so profound that 20 years after its emergence, people all over the world continue to deny its existence.
Key actors, including Eric Sawyer, a founder of Act Up New York, Sandra Thurman, President Clinton's AIDS advisor, Mathilde Krim, founder of AMFAR, Noerine Kaleeba, founder of TASO and a UNAIDS advisor, France's Health Minister Bernard Kouchner, Peter Piot, Director of UNAIDS and others who have lived this drama for the past twenty years, tell the story. These people come from the North and the South, from inside the pharmaceutical giants, governments and international institutions, and from the outside. They have been witness to the hopes and failures, errors and denial. They tell how those who had the power to do something did not, because of denial, ignorance, or deliberately. Or simply because there was no interest in it for them.
Supported by archives and testimonies, 6000 A DAY - AN ACCOUNT OF A CATASTROPHE FORETOLD reveals the tragic degree of indifference and ignorance with which HIV/AIDS has been dealt.
LIFE’S EVENING HOUR
Director: Karen Murray
Running Time: 48 minutes
Karen is currently Associate Producer on Sextv, a Citytv production that intelligently explores and interprets sexuality.
She previously worked on Citytv's MediaTelevision and was responsible for several segments included in Scanning Television - a media literacy program based largely around MediaTV - which captured a Gold at the New York Festival.
Her first documentary, Windows on Asia-Pacific: The Medium is the Masses, was endorsed by the McLuhan Program in Culture & Technology, received a Certificate of Merit from Intercom, a video competition associated with the Chicago Film Festival, as well as being nominated for Best Educational Program at the Yorkton Short Film & Video Festival.
Murray's previous gigs include Toronto correspondent for several years for Variety, the "Bible" of the entertainment industry, and General News Reporter for CKY-TV in her hometown of Winnipeg.
About the Film:
John Dugdale's striking photographs are a stunning and breathtaking interpretation of his ongoing translation of the world as he struggles to live with a devastating illness. Capturing a sense of immense timelessness and beauty, Dugdale's photos are even more extraPrior to losing his eyesight, Dugdale built a successful career as a commercial photographer. After going blind, he purchased a special camera that allowed him to continue taking pictures. Ironically, losing his eyesight forced him to turn to a purely artistic careerordinary because he is almost 100% blind.
Dugdale transformed his ordeal, caused by AIDS, into beautiful images that are shown and sold at galleries worldwide. Elton John is among his most ardent fans and has devoted an entire room to display his prints. Dugdale's artistic expression became his outlet for survival. This documentary chronicles Dugdale's story: past, present and future. His first book, "Lengthening Shadows Before Nightfall" dealt mainly with his illness. "Life's Evening Hour," his second book, has expanded his artistic expression. The film follows Dugdale's development of this book, as well as the mounting of his latest gallery show, "The Unanswered Question," which provides a year of his life in pictures. Dugdale's story unfolds through his pictures as well as anecdotes from himself, his family, his close friends, his doctor and his piano teacher.
DAMAGED GOODS
Director : Nadia Buckmire
Running Time : 62 minutes
Dedicated to contributing to the social improvement and enlightened consciousness in various communities, Nadia Buckmire, independent filmmaker/writer/director - started off her career in 1987, in radio, where she created "Expressions" - a one hour radio show dedicated to exploring social, political and cultural issues among Black Canadian communities. The show ran for three successful years. In 1991 she decided that television and film were even more powerful media, to deliver socially conscious messages. In 1993 she graduated from Howard University, Washington D.C. with a Bachelor's degree in television and film production. She moved to Los Angeles in 1993 and tested the waters of the world of popular media, by working on several music videos and films. In 1997, she worked with the Religious Information Network of Michigan as director of photography and returned to Los Angeles a year later to pursue an independent film career. In 1999, she completed a series of twenty-five poems that are currently being compiled into a book, "Twenty Five Poems".
About the Film:
Based on a tongue and cheek phrase, used by one of the film’s participants to describe what it sometimes feels like living with HIV/AIDS, Damaged Goods takes a look at five heterosexual men and women as they break thee barrier of silence and tell us what it is really like living with HIV AIDS.
The characters represent different age, ethnic and socio-economic groups in our society and are willing to share their vulnerabilities, fears, challenges, passions and joys. Their stories not only put a familiar face on this disease, but also echo the reality that this can happen to anyone.
UNDETECTABLE
Director: Jay Corcoran
Running Time: 57 minutes
Jay Corcoran has performed extensively in various New York City and regional theaters for twelve years. Off-Broadway roles include "Jerker," "Party," "Caligula" (Circle Rep), "King Lear" (ART) "Island of Anyplace" (ART). A graduate of the Theater Program at Harvard¹s American Repertory Theater, his play "The Christening" was produced at Circle Rep Lab. As an actor he has appeared in the independent films "Positive," "All the Rage," and "Birthday Time." His first documentary, "Life And Death On The A-List," was released in September 1997 by WaterBearer Films. He was a resident at Millay Colony for the Arts.
About the Film:
Undetectable is a fifty-seven minute long, digital video documentary, following for one year six Boston residents on the new multi-drug therapies for HIV disease. The film will examine the complex physical and psychological effects of the treatment on three women and three men of various ethnic and cultural backgrounds, and the importance of AIDS education and advocacy within both the gay and poor and minority communities.
Undetectable looks to the next stage of the AIDS crisis: how many of those affected deal for the first time with hope, and how the fortunate number who respond to the drugs face both a grueling treatment regimen and the challenge of rebuilding their lives during a reprieve from what was formerly a death sentence. For many there are devastating side effects; a third cope with the desperation and frustration that accompanies the lack of any response.
Above all, the film looks to the changing face of the epidemic, posing difficult questions about the readiness of both the AIDS support community and the unaffected larger world to contend with the changing demographics of the disease. For the first time since the beginning of the U.S. epidemic, the number of new cases among Blacks and Hispanics have surpassed that among Whites. Coinciding with the appearance of the expensive new therapies, this development suggests that the politics of AIDS will be more and more racially and ethnically charged.
SHORT FILMS
LEFT BEHIND
Director: Christof Putzel
Running Time: 34 minutes
Putzel, 23, received his B.A. in Psychology-based Human Relations and Film Studies from Connecticut College in 2002 and completed the 34-minute production the same year.
In the summer of 2000, he was awarded a fellowship from the Holleran Center for Community Action and Public Policy to work in an orphanage for HIV-positive children in Nairobi, Kenya. During his stay and on a return trip in January 2001, he shot more than 40 hours of footage about the lives-and deaths-of AIDS victims, the roots of the disease in Kenya's slums and the struggle for survival of homeless children who lost their parents to AIDS. Putzel produced Left Behind in the Film Studies Workshop of Connecticut College as part of his Senior Independent Study with the assistance of an equipment grant from the college.
In July 2002, Putzel was hired by the National Press Foundation to make a documentary at the World AIDS Conference in Barcelona to help journalists from developing countries improve media coverage of the AIDS pandemic.
For the past year, Putzel has worked for an independent documentary production company in Washington, D.C.
About the Film:
Left Behind is a 34-minute documentary that reveals the devastating effects of AIDS on Kenya's children by exploring the lives of HIV-positive orphans at Nyumbani Children's Home; why the virus spreads in the poverty-ridden slum of Kibera; and the struggle for survival of homeless children in nearby Dagoretti who lost their parents to AIDS.
Through the eyes and voices of the children themselves, as well as prostitutes, slum dwellers and those infected with HIV, Left Behind dramatically exposes the enormity of the challenge that faces all those who seek to help the victims and prevent the collapse of a continent.
TWO BRAVE WOMEN
Director: Annemiek Streng and Peter Mader
Running Time: 25 Minutes
A film about two women from the Netherlands with HIV
TRUE FRIENDS
Director: Bert Sonneschein
Running time: 3x7 minutes
A trilogy of shortfilms using hand-made animal puppets to dramatise different issues around HIV/AIDS, making them easily accessible to young children 5 to 8 years old
True Friends
As the gossip spreads that Gazelle is HIV positive, her best friend Zebra gets upset and expels her from the lakeside. When the wise tortoise finds her alone and weeping, she stands up for Gazelle and calls upon the other animals to reaccept her.
The Razor Blade
When Lion is suffering from asthma, Aida, the hippo, takes her friend to Auntie, who is a sangoma. Lion is scared to death of the treatment and Aida jokes around with him. But Auntie knows how to treat asthma and how to prevent AIDS while treating her patients.
Little Soldiers
Hippo had heard shooting during the night, and the friends fear that the poachers have returned. But Lion fears this new disease called AIDS even more, as he does not understand it. Tortoise explains, describing how white blood cells and the virus work in the body
A FIGHTING SPIRIT
Director: Leo Phiri
Running Time: 26 Minutes
A national hero turns public enemy when he confesses his tragic secret. Gilbert Josamu, Zimbabw
Chatelin Bruno 
