A different take on AIDS

The camera moves in on the Mozambican miner as he tells his "senior wife" – a rural woman who has little comprehension of AIDS - that he is HIV positive. Back in Johannesburg, the cameras roll again as the miner ponders how best to inform his "junior wife" of his HIV status while she makes him tea, oblivious of the true nature of the real-life drama in which she is happily taking part. As the picture fades to the credits, she is still none the wiser about her husband's secret, which is known to everyone else involved in the film, as well as to the 300 or so people who attended the film's premier in Cape Town last weekend (11 November). The ethical dilemmas facing media workers trying to portray a reality of the AIDS epidemic have come into sharp focus with the making of Steps for the Future, a powerful series of documentaries about HIV and AIDS in southern Africa. The series of 35 films, ranging from five minute "shorts" to 75 minute mini-features, "aims to show the living rather than the dying, and their incredible struggle to avert the tragedy," series producer Don Edkins told PlusNews. "These films should not be films of despair... These are films about courage," adds executive producer Iikka Vehkalahti. But to what extent was this achieved at the expense of the films' subjects? AIDS activist and human rights law specialist Alosha Ntsane was hired by Edkins to mediate between the rights of those appearing in the films and the requirements of the media professionals making them. "The most important thing for me is that, at the end of the day ... If there is anything that makes me feel that someone’s human rights were being violated, then it is wrong," Ntsane explains. Applying this yardstick, Ntsane called a halt to the production of A Miner's Tale until the Mozambican miner had undertaken to inform his wives about his HIV status. Then Ntsane had to arrange extensive counselling for the man, and later for his "senior wife" once she knew he was HIV positive. Furthermore, Ntsane says the film will not be released until the miner has disclosed his HIV status to his "junior wife", for whom counselling will also be arranged. Besides ensuring that counselling was available to everyone involved in the films, including the filmmakers, Ntsane also had a say in the selection of the documentaries, and provided commissioned film crews with AIDS education. "At first the film makers didn't take me seriously," says Ntsane. "But in every documentary you get into someone's life ... and inevitably that is going to have an impact on the film makers." This approach, which went beyond the call of duty of most film productions, appears to have paid dividends, not just in terms of the quality of the documentaries, but also in the way the subjects of the films seemed to benefit from taking part. "I gained a lot of strength," says Patience, who features in Mother To Child, a documentary about two HIV positive pregnant women. "Before shooting the film, I didn't disclose (my HIV status) to my family, but taking part in the film gave me the power to do it." In a number of the films, characters like Patience and the miner make startling personal revelations on camera in a way far removed from the tacky TV talk-show voyeurism peddled by the likes of Jerry Springer. "I'm a very shy person ... because of what has happened in my life," says Maria Makhubo, who appears in Dreams of the Good Life, a touching dialogue between five South African women about their experiences of love and life after being diagnosed HIV positive. "After joining our support group and getting involved in the film, everything has changed for me. I'm going forward, I'm moving on with my life." Dreams of the Good Life was one of a handful of films in the Steps for the Future series developed by HIV positive people in partnership with professional filmmakers. This participatory approach appears to have been a positive experience not just for those whose stories made it into film. A meeting called to discuss the making of one such film had a profound effect on a group of HIV positive people involved in antiretroviral drug trials in Johannesburg. "Being in that meeting and knowing everyone in that group was just the same like me, I started looking at things differently," recalls Beauty, one of the drug trialists. "We thought: 'Why don't we do something like create a support group whereby we come together and do things to make money with which we can buy medication once the trials are over.'" But in the end, the group's story was not commissioned, and their income-generating project faded, partly because the group did not have the momentum of the film making process to carry them forward. Characters in the films that were made could face a similar anti-climax now that the documentaries are in the can. "Now that the film is over, I'm not going to see them (the film crew) every day, which will be kind of hard," says Patience. "She (director Jane Lipman) will be busy elsewhere and she won't have time for me every time I need her. But I must deal with it and move on with my life." Patience and other characters from the films will also have to contend with the reaction of their communities once the documentaries are screened in public, not least because some still have to tell their families and partners that they are HIV positive. "The guy I'm dating now, I know I'm going to loose him when I tell him," says Maureen Mashele, who also appears in Dreams of the Good Life. "But I don't care. HIV is part of my life and if you want to be in my life you have to accept me the way I am." Not surprisingly, Ntsane acknowledges that her job may have only just begun. "You can't predict what impact the screening of the films may have ... There are so many variables. So, together with the counsellors who have been working with the characters, it is fundamental that we provide them with coping strategies." One approach may be to train characters from the films to facilitate screenings of, and discussions about their documentaries in schools, clinics and other communal settings. This would be part of a plan Edkins and his team have to show the films in ways other than the broadcasts scheduled for the coming year on television channels throughout southern Africa, as well as in Europe, Canada and Australia. Meanwhile, filmmakers are realising the political impact these and other films about HIV and AIDS could have. "AIDS is an issue people can mobilise around," says Cape Town-based film producer Shareef Cullis. "Here is an opportunity to grow a new generation of activists. There are very few political opportunities like this (the AIDS epidemic) to grow a political consciousness." However, for HIV positive Namibian Simon Elago, whose entrepreneurial endeavour building papier maché coffins is the subject of the documentary Master Positive, Steps for the Future is about survival. "Communication is necessary for those of us living with Master Aids," he says. "Without communication, we cannot see far." * Some of the family names of people quoted on this article were withheld on the request of the interviewees. For more information about Steps for the Future: www.steps.co.za