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The Institute for Community Research (ICR) will screen Thing With No Name (2008), a documentary by filmmaker Sarah Friedland about two South African women with full-blown AIDS and their fight for survival in a community where the rate of infection in women is twice that of men, and where funerals are daily occurrences. The screening will be followed by an open discussion between the filmmaker and audience, moderated by Shawn Lang of the CT AIDS Resource Coalition. The film and discussion will take place on Thursday, May 28, 2009 from 6 to 8pm at ICR, 146 Wyllys St., Hartford. Admission is free; advance registration is required by calling 860-278-2044 x251 or emailing lynne.williamson@icrweb.org.
Produced by Friedland and Esy Casey, the feature-length documentary follows thirty-two-year-old Danisile and forty-year-old Ntombeleni over the course of four months as they try to access medication through the public sector, begin belated antiretroviral treatment, struggle with side effects, and handle family and daily activities. Accompanied by breathtaking cinematography of the beautiful land of South Africa, the film provides a haunting and intimate portrayal of individual lives confronting a faceless yet public epidemic. The 74-minute film is in Zulu with English subtitles.
ICR is showing the film to accompany the exhibit Siyazama: Traditional Arts, Education, and AIDS in South Africa, which is on view at the Jean J. Schensul Community Gallery at 146 Wyllys St., Hartford (2 Hartford Square West). The exhibit is open to the public Monday through Friday from 10 to 5 pm, and will also be open during the film screening.
Siyazama: Traditional Arts, Education, and AIDS in South Africa displays work by rural women who are part of the Siyazama (We are Trying) Education and Crafts Development Project in South Africa. “The women use traditional arts skills to convey important prevention messages about HIV/AIDS, which kills one in six people in their country where information and treatment for the virus are sorely lacking,” says Lynne Williamson, exhibit coordinator and director of ICR’s Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program. “The exhibit – like the film – gives audiences a unique glimpse into the lives of Zulu women and their communities as they cope with a frightening epidemic using familiar cultural tools of tradition, cooperation, and art.”
Thing With No Name has been screened at several important film festivals, including the Starz Denver Film Festival, the Cleveland International Film Festival, and the London Independent Film Festival. It was produced with support from the Paul Newman Foundation, as well as the Jerome and William Prussoff Foundations. Friedland convened a distinguished international group of advisors working with HIV/AIDS from community-based, medical, and academic fields including her father Gerald Friedland, Director of the AIDS Program at the Yale School of Medicine.
The film screening is the second of three public events held in conjunction with the exhibit. On Friday June 5 from 10 am to 4 pm, ICR will host a day-long interactive workshop on innovative community-based prevention and education programs that address both global and local public health problems. Speakers represent several disciplines and approaches, including clinical, research, activist, and arts-based activities.
ICR’s Siyazama project is sponsored by the Aetna Foundation, the Knox Foundation, the Greater Hartford Arts Council through its United Arts and United Way Community Campaigns, the National Endowment for the Arts, the CT Commission on Culture and Tourism, the Michigan State University Museum, AIDS Project Hartford, the CT AIDS Resource Coalition, the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS at Yale, and the Center for Health, Intervention, and Prevention (CHIP) at the University of Connecticut. The Siyazama exhibit is curated by Marit Dewhurst and Marsha MacDowell, and developed by Michigan State University Museum.
For more information about the exhibit and related events, contact Lynne Williamson at 860-278-2044 x251 or lynne.williamson@icrweb.org.
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The Institute for Community Research is an independent, nonprofit organization that conducts applied research and community enhancement programs to promote equal access to health, education, and cultural resources. ICR's Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program encourages and promotes traditional artists and their communities through an active process of documentation, technical assistance, and public presentations to bring their work and the history of their communities to new audiences. |
