POSITIVE: LIFE WITH HIV

ITVS PRESENTS
"POSITIVE: LIFE WITH HIV"

- A Guide to Life Inside An Epidemic -

"I woke up one day and I said, 'The whole world has got to see a face on AIDS, and' I said, 'I'm the one to do it.'" - Beverly Rotter, whose daughter Iris died of AIDS

Despite the shrinking media coverage of the AIDS epidemic, HIV is anything but old news for the estimated one in three Americans who know someone with HIV or AIDS. What is new, however, is an innovative television series designed to serve these one in three. Commissioned and presented by the Independent Television Service (ITVS) and produced by AIDSFILMS, Inc., Positive: Life with HIV represents a unique collaboration between television and those affected by or infected with HIV. The four-part series will be broadcast nationally on public television stations beginning in January 1996.

Positive is an abrupt departure from the "misery as spectacle" format of most television coverage of the pandemic. The series blends documentary stories with satire, animation, music, dance, and first-person commentaries by a "chorus" of speakers. The segments were produced by more than twenty independent producers from across the country who worked directly with their subjects to craft video pieces that reflect their experiences and points of view.

Among the many segments in the series, viewers will see:

Interspersed throughout are creative pieces drawing on a wide range of talent - including comedian Marga Gomez, performance artist Penny Arcade, choreographer David Rousseve and his company Reality, and musical group Sweet Honey in the Rock performing their hit "Breaths." Rap artist Ismael Butler of the group Digable Planets also makes a cameo appearance. Musical comedy writers John Greyson and Glenn Schellenberg, who scored Greyson's 1993 feature film Zero Patience, team up with members of the New York-based AIDS Theatre Project for a musical comedy send-up on discrimination and prejudice. Sarcasm, satire, and sometimes biting humor come through in the pieces of videomaker Richard Gardran, a.k.a. "Tab Lloyd." His "Tips from Tab Lloyd" provides searing commentary on bureaucratic red tape, finances, medial hoaxes, and the American health care system. Also featured in each program are animated excerpts from Queer and Loathing, late author David Feinberg's hilariously cynical book on living with HIV.

The four programs are oriented around major themes related to the HIV experience. Program one, COMMUNITY, introduces viewers to a broad range of people with HIV, many of who have not seen themselves represented in the media. It explores the ways that people with HIV find support, sometimes from their own communities and families, but often by creating new families and communities in the face of rejection and lack of traditional family connection.

For most people, living with HIV means reevaluating priorities in their lives, as well as confronting the harsh realities of the stigma associated with the disease. Often, it motivates people to come to grips with who they are as they face the myriad decisions they must make. In program Two, IDENTITY, participants tackle such important personal issues as sexuality, relationships, and work as they share their process of self-discovery and change.

Program Three, CARE, looks at the many ways people with HIV disease are approaching care and treatment, emotionally and physically. Nearly fifteen years into the AIDS pandemic, activism continues to exist because people continue to die. Program Four, FIGHTING FOR OUR LIVES, looks at the different fronts on which people are fighting the war against AIDS and the many ways people living with HIV are preparing for the future.

"Our job," said Jaunita Anderson, Executive Producer of Positive for AIDSFILMS, "was to create a series that showed life from inside the epidemic, from the many points of view of people living in some way, at some stage, with the virus. From news coverage to made-for-TV movies, television perpetuates stereotypes of all kinds that do a disservice to the people who are supposedly being portrayed. In the case of people living with HIV, this is particularly damaging given the terrible stigma associated with the disease."

Positive: Life with HIV has gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure that its message reaches "close to home." Prior to production, AIDSFILMS and ITVS convened a summit of HIV/AIDS community members and care providers from all over the country. Each was asked "what was needed most," resulted in the guiding principles of the finished four-hour series. "Even in the so-called 'HIV Community,' people don't necessarily share the same experience or point of view," said Anderson. "We agreed with our advisors that it was important to represent many different people's lives. So if one person's humor is not your cup of tea, that's OK. Hold on and you're sure to see something else that will feel closer to home."

AIDSFILMS and ITVS want to complete that circle begun in an exchange of ideas and suggestions. To this end, Positive will be accompanied by a landmark outreach effort, one involving national and regional organizations, local groups and support agencies, public television stations, and viewers - ensuring that the series will not be just a broadcast event, but a tool for change and involvement long after it has aired. "We've set out to explore the big question," said Jane Cole, Coordinating Producer for ITVS and series concept creator who will coordinate the outreach effort. "In the midst of the worst epidemic in modern history, isn't there a productive role that broadcast television could, and should play, both on- and off- screen?"

Recently, ITVS received a $100,000 award from The Ford Foundation to support a major campaign designed to reach beyond the television screen into people's homes, neighborhoods, and communities, where Positive will continue to make a difference in many lives. "ITVS is eager to demonstrate the ways in which support of this kind can create partnerships between public television and viewers that enhance the lives of people living with HIV and AIDS, as well as the lives of those who love and care for them," said James Yee, ITVS Executive Director.

Positive: Life with HIV is a presentation of the Independent Television Service, with major funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional funding was provided by The Ford Foundation and the Will Rogers Foundation. Positive: Life with HIV is a production of AIDSFILMS, Inc. Series Concept Creator and Coordinating Producer is Janet Cole. Executive Producer is Juanita Anderson. Series Producers are Calogero Salvo and Lucy Winer. Preview cassettes, photographs, and interview opportunities are available. Contact Jim Gordon, GPR at 212/787-2544 for more information.

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