Filed under: Interviews, HIV/AIDS, Women's Health, Men's Health, Let's Talk About Sex
The documentary tells the tales of D.C. citizens J'Mia Edwards, a woman living with AIDS and fighting desperately to keep herself and her three young children from being thrown out of their home; Jose Ramirez, a young man who contracted the disease from a boyfriend - who didn't disclose he was infected - but now, devotes his life to promoting HIV awareness among Hispanic teens; a one-time addict now living with AIDS, Ron Daniels saves lives by providing clean needles and helping drug users receive treatment; and finally, the staff of the AIDS hospice Joseph's House struggles to provide solace to terminal patients' last days, to deal with their own sense of loss, and their constantly declining funding.
Tying the stories together are interviews with reporters, such as Jose Vargas, who penned articles about the topic for the 'Washington Post,' who provide alarming facts about the role, or lack thereof, that congress and the U.S. government has played in the millions of those who are infected with the disease in our nation's capital.
Blackvoices.com sat down with Johnson for an exclusive discussion about the documentary, why she felt compelled to finance and oversee it and the future of HIV/AIDS in our community.
Blackvoices.com: How did this documentary come to your attention?
Sheila Johnson: I was very fortunate that I decided a long time ago to stand behind projects that were beneficial to the community at large. We had a movie in Sundance called 'Kickin' It' on addiction. During my daily newspaper readings, I began to notice a series of articles in the 'Washington Post' written by Jose Vargas about HIV.
Every time he had articles coming out, there were some real statistics (3 percent of the population in DC are infected with HIV) that were really frightening. I was doing a lot of work outside of the U.S. and his articles made it more clear how much work was needed in our very own back yards.
Then I went to Susan Koch who is the director of 'Kickin It' and I said let's think about doing a documentary on this. I went to Jose and said let's take your words and put it on the screen. He is the narrator, his stories and researched facts provided the narrative and the brains behind the documentary.
Blackvoices.com: How long did it take to put everything together?
Sheila Johnson: It took a good year and a half. We shot thousands of hours of footage. We first had to find the subjects of the film. And to hear all of the stories, especially from the married women who had contracted the disease from their husbands, it was all heart-breaking and so very real and very hard to edit it down to what we have. The most miraculous thing was they were all so open up and to tell their stories.
Blackvoices.com: The documentary covers a wide-range of those infected with the disease--from the single mother to the intravenous user to the hospice. Was that the goal?
Sheila Johnson: We wanted to make sure to cover all the topics. With the single mother, she contracted it from the father of her three children. We had to talk about intravenous drug use as it represents 1/3 of those who get the disease. And the factors surrounding former and current inmates, these are the truths about the disease. The interesting thing is that it converges into the city of D.C., making it a microscopic reflection of what is truly going on in the U.S. and globally.
Blackvoices.com: Which stories touched you the most?
Sheila Johnson: J'Mia Edwards' story is about a single, black woman who got trapped into a situation from a person she loved and trusted--her children's father--and she is fighting for survival every day. She's now become an AIDS advocate and we were able to tell her story and bring enough attention so that she could get housing.
There are so many smart women--attorneys, business women, doctors--who have been trapped into this because either they went back out on the dating force or their husband infected them.
I can really emphasize with the family that lost their son in the movie.
Joseph's House, which provides a place where people who have the disease to be cared for and die in dignity, is such a special place. That it is still in danger of losing its funding due to government cutbacks, is a true shame. I was there last week because I was following a patient who passed away Saturday night. I sat with him Friday night and watched him and breathed with him and saw him change. He requested "goodbye" kisses a few days before he passed away.
Blackvoices.com: What do you want people to come away with after viewing this film?
Sheila Johnson: I want people to talk about it. People stopped talking about it [from the early days] and they are not paying attention. It's sad, we're so vunerable.
Nobody wants to talk about it; they think that AIDS is nonexistent in this country. Doctors have been very good about eradicating infants [getting the disease from birth] and with anti-retrovirals you can take cocktails to help you live with it; but we're still seeing an increase in contracting the disease--especially from 13 year olds. In young people's minds, they watch television and movies and they see the freedom of how people behave; in their minds they don't think they are going to catch anything. That is a huge part of the problem.
We have to open this dialogue and we have to erase the stigma surrounding HIV, and we have to talk to our young adults about having sex without protection.
Today, it's like anything goes. Sexually transmitted diseases are on the rise; but nobody is talking about it. I want women to really start talking about it with their significant others. Education is the key to prevention.
Once young and older people realize they have to protect themselves, that's when we are going to see a decline in this disease.
Blackvoices.com: Does your advocacy end with this film?
Sheila Johnson: No. I'm very active with trying to get this onto the agenda with our new administration [in D.C.], especially because in 2012, the international AIDS conference will be held here. We would like to see how the city plans on hosting something like this without accurately being able to say what they are doing about prevention.
They don't understand the severity of the issue; it could be the same numbers as in any third world country, making it an epidemic that everyone should be up in arms about.
As for the documentary, we would like to look at an educational distributor to distribute the film to schools and colleges; and create a tool kit with essential facts that will be disbursed. We have very long-term goals for this.
Blackvoices.com: How has working on this film changed you?
Sheila Johnson: I always felt like I have been one of those people to go abroad \ to save the global world. But I didn't go in my back yard. We're disintegrating our race and if I can be an advocate for heatlh issues for African Americans, I will do it.
I honestly, feel we need to take our lives in our own hands and take responsibility. We have got to come together as African Americans and Hispanics and take responsibility for our community; race plays a big part in this. And we have to realize that no one is going to do it for us.
View the trailer for 'The Other City,' which airs tonight at 7 p.m. Eastern on Showtime.