WHY US? examines the continuing HIV epidemic among African Americans
WHY US? LEFT BEHIND AND DYING (Claudia Pryor Malis, 2009)
Maysles Institute
343 Malcolm X Blvd/Lenox Ave. between 127th & 128th Sts.
Friday, September 9, $10, 5:55
Festival continues through September 11
212-582-6050
www.harlemfilmfestival.com
www.mayslesinstitute.org
www.diversityfilms.org
You don’t have to be black to be moved by Why Us? Left Behind and Dying. But as narrator, cowriter, and production associate Tamira Noble points out early on, the film is meant as a wake-up call to African Americans to do something about the continuing HIV/AIDS crisis specifically affecting blacks in the United States and Africa. “There’s a choice facing us in black America right now,” director Claudia Pryor Malis says in the film’s production notes. “Turn away from this new stigma or face it, unpack it, and remove its sting — passive self-destruction or active self-love.” Pryor Malis teamed with twenty students from Westinghouse High School in Pittsburgh, all between the ages of fourteen and seventeen, to make the film, which served as a class project for them. Over the course of a year and a half, the students met with researchers, activists, doctors, community leaders, virologists, straight and gay people with HIV, and men, women, and teenagers who still do not use protection when having sex. Noble reveals fascinating and frightening statistics about the disproportionate number of HIV-positive blacks in the United States and Africa and discusses the many reasons for the disparity, including shame, secrecy, homophobia, religious belief, genetic variation, and just plain carelessness. Noble, who was a high school senior when the project started, naturally grew into her unexpected role as narrator and cowriter, and she does an outstanding job anchoring the film, serving as a kind of surrogate for the viewer. Why Us? is an important look at a critical situation that must be dealt with — and fast. Why Us? is screening on September 9 at 5:55 at the Maysles Institute as part of the Harlem International Film Festival program AIDS!