AIDS on the screen

[Guest guest]

AIDS gets reflected on screen at film festival

Indo-Asian News Service, Press Trust Of India

Panaji

World AIDS Day found its reflection on the screen at the

International Film Festival of India (IFFI) here on Wednesday, with

directors and stars talking about how more needed to be done to build

awareness on this issue.

" Phir Milenge " director Revathy, whose film focuses on " HIV and

people in a format that goes to the theatres, and not just the

festival circuit " , highlighted the role movies could play in the

fight against the disease.

Starring big names Shilpa Shetty, Salman Khan and Abhishek Bachchan,

the low-budget film highlights how Indian law is blind to

discrimination against HIV-positive people at the workplace.

Also present was South African director Darrell Roodt - whose

earlier films Serafina! (1992) and Cry, The Beloved Country (1995) -

have received global recognition for their political conscience and

South African themes.

In his 2004 film Yesterday, showcased at the Goa IFFI that is

underway here, he tells the story of a young mother of the same name,

who lives with her daughter Beauty, in rural KwaZulu-Natal.

Her husband is a migrant worker in the mines of Johannesburg, and the

inevitable happens as in any film about HIV/AIDS.

Her husband's violent denial of both the disease and his culpability

for her infection leaves Yesterday with few choices and even less

support.

Later on Wednesday evening, the Big B - Amitabh Bachchan - is to

address the press with the CEO of Mandela Foundation,

, and Yesterday's producer Anant Singh.

" There are so many different points of view about AIDS. In Thailand,

at the World AIDS Conference, I was surprised by the line of

questions, " said Roodt.

" What I'm attracted to is social realism...Ordinary people in

extraordinary circumstances. South Africa has got the most democratic

constitution, but we suffer from self-censorship.

" It's a very difficult country for young people to grow up in. I

would like to make more films on issues that matter, " said the

director.

Revathy, whose Phir Milenge is being screened on Wednesday on three

TV networks to coincide with World AIDS Day, said: " It's the stigma

that stops people from talking about AIDS.

" The longest living person in India contracted AIDS 21 years ago. But

stigma just kills the spirit to live. "

Asked whether her film had " plagiarised " the 1993 lawyer-fighting-for-

AIDS-patient film Philadelphia, Revathy conceded that " good film

inspires " but cited the case of the Mumbai-based law firm Lawyers

Collective, where she said an advocate had used labour law to fight

for the rights of an AIDS patient.

Some other films being showcased at IFFI Goa too deal with themes of

social realism, including movies from China, Iran, Israel, Sri Lanka,

Argentina, Brazil and a host of countries where the glamour of the

screen confronts the harsh reality of the daily lives of the vast

majority

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