News

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11.24.2008

Jonathan Mann – The Human Rights Advocate

Produced for UNAIDS. 10 minutes. Release: November 2008

The Face of AIDS Foundation has been assigned by UNAIDS in Geneva to produce a short documentary on the international AIDS-pioneer, Dr. Jonathan Mann. The title of the film is “ Jonathan Mann – The Human Rights Advocvate” . The objective was to produce a short film which sets forth in brief form and commemorates human rights perspective and related work and legacy of Dr Jonathan Mann. He was recruited by the WHO in 1985, when he was studying the first reports of AIDS outbreak in central Africa in the early 80´s. Dr. Mann became the first head of the WHO Global Program on AIDS, in Geneva between 1986 – 1990. The film was premiered at a special commemoration event at the UNAIDS in Geneva, November 24, 2008. The film commemorates the 10 year anniversary of the death of dr. Mann on 2 september, 1988. The film is produced in the context of the year celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is also intended that the film will be used in human rights trainings and events for many years to come, distributed to partners and posted on the UNAIDS internet site.

The film will be used by UNAIDS to raise awareness of the importance of human rights to the response to HIV and other health challenges, and highlight the enduring relevance of human rights in the response to AIDS. The overall message of the film is the continued relevance of human rights to the AIDS epidemic.

A number of respected international AIDS experts comments in the film on Jonathan Manns legacy. Among them are dr. Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS, dr. Daniel Tarantola, a close associate of dr. Mann and now professor in Health and Human Rights, New South Wales University, in Australia, dr. Anthony Fauci, head of US AIDS research at the National Institutes of Health, NIH, Bethesda, USA.

Click here to watch the film.

11.24.2008

"Until there is a cure" – The history of the AIDS-conferences

40 min. TV-documentary. Release – Spring 2009

“Until there is a Cure” – is a 40 minute TV-documentary on the history of 
the International AIDS Conferences, as time markers of the human history of 
HIV/AIDS. The first AIDS conference was organized by the Centers for Disease Control, in Atlanta, USA in 1985. Since 1988, the AIDS conferences are organized by the International AIDS Society, based in Geneva. This year´s conference, the XVII International AIDS Conference, was held in Mexico City between August 3-8, 2008. More than 23 000 delegates and 3000 media people from all over the world participated.

The 40 minute documentary is a co-production between Face of AIDS, Staffan Hildebrand, and Mondopop 
Production, Pierre Peyroth, in Bangkok. The film is edited by the Face of AIDS editor Mikael Enlund. The film was initiallymade to highlight the 20th anniversary of the 
International AIDS Society, IAS, main organizer of the International AIDS Conferences.

The IAS was established in Stockholm in connection with the IV International AIDS Conference, in June 1988. Dr. Lars Olof Kallings, former head of the Swedish Center for Disease Control, and the pioneering AIDS-doctor, dr. Paul Volberding, UCSF, San Fransisco, USA were the two co-founders.

The film was previewed during a special session to commemorate the 20th annioversary of the IAS, during the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City. The film shows highlights from all the AIDS-conferences between 1985- 2008, as new material has been added from the AIDS Conference in Mexico City. The film will be distributed to international TV networks during 2009.

The film will be uploaded at the Face of AIDS website early 2009.

11.24.2008

Face of AIDS launching Beta website!

The most important news concerning Face of AIDS during 2008, was the launch of its brand new Beta version of the website, www.faceofaids.org, in connection with the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City in August 2008. The Beta version of the website contained 40 short web films at the launch occasion. These films were selected and edited from the Face of AIDS film archive, covering the period 1987 – 2008. The film archive in total contains 900 hours of film material on HIV/AIDS, shot by the producer Staffan Hildebrand and the Face of AIDS film teams in 43 countries between 1987 - 2008. The Face of AIDS web team Adam Appel and Rikard Ekberg developed a design and search system for Face of AIDS, so the visitor can navigate in the website and search for edited web films, according to his and her interest.

The Beta website is the first important step in the development of the Face of AIDS website, which will be the main communication platform for the Face of AIDS film documentation in the future. The digitalization process of the existing film material in the archive, started during 2007, with a grant from UNAIDS and from the Swedish Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Foundation. UNAIDS and its web platform manager Htin Aung, has also been instrumental in advising the web team how to proceed and develop the website. This process includes digitalization, structuring, logging, basic editing and making security copies on DV-cam tapes of the film material, in order to prepare it to be published at the Website in an edited version. The process started with the earliest film material, which was made during 1987 -1989 on 16 mm film. So far, 125 hours of film material has been processed.

The digitalization process is now continuing. After the launch in Mexico City, another 35 web films have been uploaded on the Face of AIDS website in November 2008. Some of them include material shot during the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City.

The Face of AIDS current plan is to have the entire film archive digitized, structured, logged and edited into accessible web films, by June 5, 2011. During 2009- 2011 the Face of AIDS film teams will also complement the existing film archive with new film material. By June 2011, the plan is to have 500 web films uploaded and searchable on the website, focusing on different themes and subjects. Combined they will tell the dramatic story of how the HIV/AIDS pandemic has developed between 1981- 2011. The archive will also focus on the global AIDS response, as well as the advancement of AIDS-research. Witness accounts and interviews with experts, scientists, doctors, activists, opinion makers, people from the pharmaceutical industry and people living with HIV/AIDS will be a key part of the film archive.

June 5, 2011 is selected in order to coincide with the 30th commemoration of the start of the AIDS pandemic. The US Centers for Disease Control, published in its weekly Morbidity and Mortality Report, June 5, 1981, a report on five young homosexual men dying at a Los Angeles hospital from a disease which destroyed their immune systems. That was more than a year before the disease was named AIDS and two years before the discovery of the virus, HIV, leading to AIDS.

The Face of AIDS plans to reach its goal by June 2011, developing the existing film archive into a world leading digital searchable online education, research and information tool on global aspects of HIV/AIDS and the history of the pandemic.

08.20.2008

Documentation of the Mexico City AIDS Conference

The International AIDS Society, IAS, assigned to the Face of AIDS Foundation to document major keynote speakers and events during the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, between August 3-8, 2008. The Face of AIDS sent two film teams to the Mexico City AIDS Conference, and they worked around the clock. The result is 35 hours of unedited film material, covering all aspects of the AIDS conference. The Face of AIDS started to upload web films from Mexico City in November 2008 and will continue to do so during the coming months. You can find the films from the XVII International AIDS Conference, just by typing in "XVII International AIDS Conference" in the search field. The teams consisted of Staffan Hildebrand (producer), David Galipeau (researcher), Mikael Enlund (cameraman), Max Rangner (cameraman) and Sam Coil (reporter).

08.14.2008

"Women at the Frontline" – a new documentary on women and AIDS.

25 minutes. Release: At the Mexico City AIDS Conference, August 2008.

The Face of AIDS documentary “Women at the Frontline”, a new 25 minute documentary on 
four young women from Indonesia, Bolivia, Kenya and Sweden living with HIV/AIDS 
and involved in advocacy and outreach work, was screened at the Closing Plenary Session at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, August 8, 2008. The film was also screened at a special seminar, hosted by the Swedish Foreign Ministry, which also funded the film. Two of the women from the film, 
Frika Chia Iskandar, from Jakarta, Indonesia and Violeta Gracia Ross, La Paz, 
Bolivia participated in this seminar, along with the film's director Staffan Hildebrand and the Swedish AIDS Ambassador, Lennarth Hjelmaker.

Click here to watch the film.

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