Mark World AIDS Day with Day With(out) Art, a national program that Visual AIDS originated in 1989 to celebrate lives and achievements of lost artists and colleagues lost in the AIDS crisis, encourage caring for all people with AIDS, and educate diverse publics about HIV. For the last fifteen years, Day With(out) Art has continued to encourage ongoing efforts to de-stigmatize and find a cure for HIV by commissioning video works and partnering with hundreds of organizations to present screenings around the world.

This year’s program, “Meet Us Where We’re At,” will be hosted as a virtual screening and talkback. The filmmakers explore the experiences of drug users and harm reduction practices as they intersect with the ongoing HIV crisis. Harm reduction has long been central to the AIDS movement through practices like needle exchange and safe injection sites. This program brings the perspectives to the forefront, amplifying the voices of drug users as storytellers, cultural producers, and essential participants in the global response to HIV. Following the screening, a conversation with attendees will be moderated by Michelle Dezember, CAM Director of Learning and Engagement, and Crystal Ellis, owner of Crystallized Sexuality, LLC.

To receive a link to attend the virtual screening, register here.

Accessibility Notes

• This film program contains references and images to drug use and other adult themes.
• This event takes place on zoom. Registered users will receive a link.
• To request an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter for this event, please contact programs@camstl.org with as much prior notice possible to ensure availability.

About the Videos

Voices of Resilience, directed by Kenneth Idongesit Usoro. Nigeria.

• Voices of Resilience follows the lives of queer individuals and drug users living with HIV in Nigeria. Through personal interviews and experimental visual storytelling, the film shows the protagonists’ worlds as they seek out underground harm reduction services.

The Sister’s Journey, directed by Hoàng Thái Anh. Vietnam.

• Through a documentary style, The Sister’s Journey explores the daily life of a transgender woman in Vietnam using drugs. The film delves into her fear of stigma, struggles she faces, and the vital role of harm reduction services and healthcare available to her.

chempassion, directed by Gustavo Vinagre and Vinicius Couto. Brazil/Portugal.

• In the magical realist film, chempassion, a gay man reminisces about his orgy days and chem sex, and considers his future while speaking with an apparition of G.H., a canonical fictional character of Brazilian literature.

Realce (Highlight), directed by Camilo Tapia Flores. Chile/Brazil.

• Realce is a documentary short following two HIV-positive friends, DJ Deseo and porn actor Fernando Brutto, during one of their performances at Rio de Janeiro’s Carnival. The duo move through the streets of Rio and Carnival “blocos,” sharing their reflections on friendship, undetectability, their relationship with sex, and drug use within their own community.

Ghost in the Park, directed by Camila Flores-Fernández. Peru/Germany.

• Ghost in the Park traces the narratives of the community of Görlitzer Park, an area in Berlin known for public drug use and trade. Highlighting “drug consumption buses” that promote safer use and aim to reduce HIV transmission among drug users, the space of the bus is taken as an axis through which the experiences and feelings of the community around the park are amplified.

¿Por qué tanto dolor? (Why so much pain?), directed by José Luis Cortés. Puerto Rico.

• Instead of asking, “Why so much meth in the gay community?,” Cortés’s experimental film provokes the deeper question, “Why so much pain?” The film delves into the emotional and social wounds that fuel addiction and risk-taking behaviors.

The artists in this program were selected by a jury of artists/community workers including Eva Dewa Masyitha, Heather Edney, charles ryan long, and Leo Herrera. For more information, visit visualaids.org.