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A Closer
Walk
2003, 85 min
Country: USA
Director: Robert Bilheimer
Language: English
REVIEW: A Closer Walk depicts humankind's confrontation
with the global AIDS epidemic. The film's director and producer,
Robert Bilheimer, is an Academy Award nominee for his film Cry
of Reason, a profile of the South African anti-apartheid leader
Beyers Naude. A Closer Walk was conceived with the late Jonathan
Mann, architect of the World Health Organization's response
to global AIDS. Directed, written, and produced by Oscar nominee
Robert Bilheimer, narrated by Glenn Close and Will Smith, A
Closer Walk explores the intricate relationship between health,
dignity, and human rights, and shows how the harsh realities
of AIDS in the world are an expressions of the way the world
is. The film features interviews with prominent individuals
from all walks of life including The Dalai Lama, Kofi Annan,
and Bono; stories, portraits, and vignettes of children, women,
and men living with AIDS on four continents; and breathtaking
cinematography by Richard D. Young that celebrates human dignity,
even as it bears witness to immense human suffering.
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A Fighting
Spirit
2001, 28 min
Country: Zimbabwe
Director: Leo Phir
Language: Shona with English subtitles
REVIEW: A national hero turns public enemy
when he confesses his tragic secret. Gilbert Josamu, Zimbabwean
middle-weight boxing champion, discovered he was HIV-positive
at the height of his career. Living in a society where HIV/AIDS
is taboo, Josamu forged his medical certificate and continued
to pursue his career. Just months before he died, Josamu finally
confessed to having lived with HIV for 14 years. The public
outrage that followed forced him into his toughest fight yet
-the battle for acceptance. This is a story told by those who
are still alive.
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A Luta
Continua (The Struggle Continues)
2001, 26 min
Country: South Africa
Director: Jack Lewis
Language: English and Xhosa with English subtitles
REVIEW: "HIV is not a death sentence!"
say the HIV+ group from Khayelitsha. They tell their stories
in a series of short films which are then screened at taxi stands
and shopping malls in Cape Town's townships. This powerful film
about courage in the face of death includes footage of the group
process, the short films themselves and their public screenings.
Although they were too young to be part of the struggle against
apartheid, they face a new struggle in their lifetime. They
decide to call the film A Luta Continua - the struggle continues.
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A Miner’s
Tale
2001, 40 min
Country: Mozambique / South Africa
Director: Nic Hofmeyr and Gabriel Mondlane
Language: Chope, Shangaan, Tswana with English subtitles
REVIEW: Joachim is a migrant laborer who is
torn between his responsibilities for his junior wife in South
Africa and his senior wife and family in Mozambique. When visiting
his home village after a long absence, he is also torn between
his understanding of the responsibilities of his HIV status
and what traditional society expects of him as a man. He has
to make a choice: he cannot please and protect everybody at
the same time. The elders are adamant that Joaquim must do his
traditional duty and give his wife more children. What will
he choose? |
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A Red Ribbon
Around My House
2001, 26 min
Country: South Africa
Director: Portia Rankoane
Language: Afrikaans, English, Sotho and Zulu with English subtitles
REVIEW: A mother and daughter are in crisis because of their
different responses to AIDS. Pinky, flamboyant and loud, lets
everyone know she is HIV-positive. But her daughter, Ntombi,
is battling to be just like everyone else. Her mother's courageous
and touching refusal to be quiet or passive in the face of AIDS,
sets them apart. Pinky acknowledges the difficulties her openness
poses for her daughter, but makes no apology. Throughout it
all, her sense of humor about life are apparent. We leave the
film with Pinky doing what she does best -living. |
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AIDS And Arts
In Africa
2002, 20 min
Country: Mali and South Africa
Studio: Louise M Bourgault, Dept of Communication & Performance
Studies, Northern Michigan University
Director: Louise M Bourgault
Language: English
REVIEW: AIDS and the Arts in Africa is a documentary
of some of the remarkable work popular African artists are producing
in the struggle against AIDS. Shot on location in Mali and South
Africa, the video showcases such performing arts genres as drama,
dance, puppetry and song. The video also highlights the visual
arts of mural and canvas painting. AIDS and the Arts in Africa
is an upbeat and inspiring look at African artists devising
solutions to a very serious problem. |
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Aids:
A Race Against Time
1993, 27 min
Country: Bolivia, Thailand, and Zimbabwe
Studio: Plan International
Language: English
REVIEW: Featuring Nigerian Health Advisor for
Plan International, Dr Remi Sogunro, AIDS: A Race Against Time
discusses AIDS education efforts in Zimbabwe, Thailand and Bolivia.
The video follows the epidemic’s progression and focuses
on peer counseling, education, understanding and cultural change
as the tools for fighting AIDS and improving the quality of
life in the developing world, especially among children. |
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AIDS:
Life At Stake
1991, 37 min
Country: Kenya
Studio: Arnold C Mayer Jr for Kenya Red Cross
Director: Heather Edmundson
Languages: English, Portuguese, Yao, Macua and Nyanja
REVIEW: A few days after his wedding, Onesimus
Safari leaves for Nairobi, promising his wife Hannah he will
find a job and build them a beautiful home in the city. Once
there, Safari struggles to earn a living until he finally lands
a good job as an insurance salesman. With his new wealth, Safari
enjoys Nairobi, spending nights out on the town with different
women and returning to his wife in the village on the weekends.
His life changes when shortly after Hannah gives birth to their
first child, Safari falls sick and is unable to shake the illness.
A compassionate doctor explains that Safari contracted AIDS
from casual sex and urges him to change his lifestyle. Safari’s
life is at stake, along with the lives of people he would infect
with AIDS through sexual contact. Safari’s realistic story
is one of a man who moves to the city in search of a brighter
future, but in the process finds more than he bargained for
- including the ugly reality of AIDS. |
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And The
Band Played On
1993, 141 min
Country: United States of America
Studio: HBO
Director: Roger Spottiswoode
Language: English
REVIEW: A superior, made-for-cable film, this
Home Box Office adaptation of Randy Shilts's chronicle detailing
the emergence of AIDS in America and the fight against bureaucracy
and society for a cure is a taut, outrageous, and affecting
true-life drama. Matthew Modine ( Birdy ,Married to the Mob
) is featured as a doctor with the Centers for Disease Control
at the time when the first reports of a disease plaguing the
gay community were heard. Modine and his colleagues embark on
an investigation that resembles a compelling detective story
as they try to track the source of the disease and discover
a cure. Their efforts are thwarted by an ambivalent government
and a turf war between French physicians and a celebrated American
researcher (Alan Alda) who seems to place his own glory above
the dead and the dying. Featuring heartfelt performances from
a stellar cast including Richard Gere, Glenne Headly, Anjelica
Huston, Steve Martin, Ian McKellen, Saul Rubinek, and Lily Tomlin,
this impassioned film stands as an impressive and important
document of one of the darkest eras in modern human history,
and a tribute to the spirit of those who sought to save lives. |
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Angels in
America
2003, 353 min
Country: United States of America
Studio: HBO
Directors: Mike Nichols (Play by: Tony Kushner)
Language: English
REVIEW: This stunning tour-de-force from HBO
films is not only a political and historical drama set in the
age of AIDS, but also a powerful love story between two men.
Louis (Shenkman) and Prior Walter (Kirk) are totally in love
with each other in this tragedy set in at the height of AIDS
hysteria in 1984. To refresh your memories, President Reagan
refused to utter the words AIDS and thousands were dying of
a stigmatized disease. Also in this mix in this utterly essential
film are the evil Roy Cohn (Pacino) his vision Ethel Rosenberg
(Streep), an old rabbi also played by Streep, gay loves, a shunned
wife, a Mormon mother and some fierce politics.
Angels is set in the eighties in NYC and focuses on the AIDS
striken Prior Walter who is abandoned by his over Louis. Also
in this sprawling film where several actors play several roles
are the McCarthy-era closet case Roy Cohn, the accused Communist
spy Ethel Rosenberg, Louis's new lover Joe Pitt (Wilson), his
mother Hanna (Streep, who also plays an elderly Rabbi), his
wife Harper (Parker) and a enormous rather mystified angel played
by Emma Thompson who also plays a Brooklyn accented nurse and
a homeless woman. Perhaps the supporting player who most stands
out is Jeffrey Wright who stars not only as a very gay nurse,
but also as a guide in Harper's fantasies. Yes, the film is
filled with fantasies -- so many we couldn't share them all
here -- in fact, we wouldn't dare. |
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