HIV: The Neglected Pandemic VICE VERSA, 2021 (73m)FILM ONLINE: https://youtu.be/c500I15gLho (captioning available) A special VICE TV documentary feature marking the 40th anniversary of HIV/AIDS in the United States. Narrated by Queer Eye star and New York Times-bestselling author Jonathan VanNess, VICE takes us through 40 years of HIV/AIDS and a comprehensive look at what it means to be HIV-positive in the U.S.in 2021 through a diverse array of personal accounts from the people who have survived the global pandemic, what it’s like living with HIV & how it’s stigmatized now, while exploring the truth behind the statistics. Film Reflection: Using examples from the stories shared by the film’s participants discuss what they identify as issues that need to be addressed in the continuing fight against HIV
2ND:HIV Crisis on the Texas-Mexico Border, 2018 (24m)FILM ONLINE: https://youtu.be/pDNwIdfyUgoThe Rio Grande Valley has been at the frontline of some of the most contentious recent conflict in the US memory. But they’ve also found themselves at the frontline of another kind of conflict — and HIV epidemic affecting increasing numbers of young, queer, latino men. Brownsville, Texas, a border town whose population is 90 percent Latino, is in the throes of a devastating HIV epidemic. Faced with a weak sex education program, stigma against homosexuality, and a low health literacy level, the city’s LGBTQ+ community is grappling with how to address the crisis.Film Reflection: Discuss the situation in Brownsville and discuss some of unique issues for the Latinx community in combating the HIV epidemic
3RD:DARLING! The Pieter-Dirk Uys Story, 2007 (54m)Film website: http://pdudarlingmovie.wordpress.comFILM ONLINE: https://youtu.be/pEuLFlvX-KEPost Film Follow up short: https://vimeo.com/10574163One of the most entertaining and decidedly in your face documentaries about AIDS prevention… Most amazing is the fact that the film was the inspiration of a 15-year-old Australian boy who heard Uys speak to a school group [in Africa] and decided to make this documentary. – Huffington PostFilm Reflection: Reflect on Pieter’s opinion about HIV/AIDS in South Africa and his approach to fighting HIV/AIDS.
4TH:Rampant: How a City Stopped a Plague, 2007 (57m)This is the little known story of how a strange coalition of doctors, nurses, nuns, gays, whores, junkies and politicians pulled off one of the first and boldest defeats of AIDS in the world (Australia). Together they broke the law, offended everyone, and saved tens thousands of lives.Film Reflection: Reflect on how the Australian “method” of fighting HIV differs from the U.S. using examples from the film.
5TH:Fire in the Blood, 2014 (80m)Film website. http://fireintheblood.comTells the story of how Western pharmaceutical companies and governments aggressively blocked access to low-cost AIDS drugs for the countries of Africa and the global south in the years after 1996 – causing ten million or more unnecessary deaths – and the improbable group of people who decided to fight back.Film Reflection: Reflect on how patent laws have hurt fight against HIV/AIDS and how you thing they should be changed.
