Premise

“A Dying Community” is a 60-minute rhetorical documentary that reveals the rampant growth of HIV/AIDS among young, gay, inner city black males in efforts to promote sexual awareness in the African American community.

Artist’s Statement

We, as a culture, do not want to see images of dying and debilitated men who are affected with AIDS. We find it easier to ignore the dilemma, then to face it. It is this indifference that hinders real progress in dealing with the victims and finding a cure. As a society, we continue to deny the victims the ability to die with dignity or live without shame. Before one can die with dignity one must be able to live with dignity. And as it stands, our culture does not dignify same sex relationships. It is no wonder that many individuals refuse to be tested for HIV and, more seriously, deny their contraction of this fatal virus. Many find that having HIV is unacceptable and our society reinforces this view throughout its practices and traditions. Statistics reveal that the rate of HIV infection within the African American segment of the American population is growing profusely. Some reports estimate that in some areas, where there is a heavily populated gay community as many as 8 out of every 10 black gay males has the infection. At the same time, the rate of infection within the white gay community is at an all time low. With “A Dying Community,” I hope to address the stigma of homosexuality within the African American community that prevents many black men from identifying themselves as gay or bisexual, which may keep them from accessing the necessary prevention and treatment services available.

Background/ Need

The Associated Press reported that a stunning one-third of young black gay men in large U.S. cities are infected with HIV. The findings, based on a study released earlier this year, show that among gay men, 3 percent of Asians, 7 percent of whites, 15 percent of Hispanics and 30 percent of blacks are infected with the virus. Amazingly, HIV is particularly rampant among young black gay men, which leave many experts with the idea that these men have ignored the stringent safe sex message directed at white gay men in the mid-1980s. Dr. Carlos del Rio of Emory University in Atlanta, who studies AIDS in inner cities, noted that the disease largely affects populations on the edges of the mainstream, which are primarily poor blacks and gay men. “A Dying Community” serves as an educational piece of propaganda that seeks dissemination throughout the marginalized African American community in hopes to increase homosexual awareness and promote a decline in HIV contraction (Hanley, 1).
The video will provide viewers with an accurate and timely resource that highlights the realities of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in large inner cities. The video seeks to raise awareness about the epidemic, and its effects on political, economic, and culture systems as well as how to prevent the spread of the disease. “A Dying Community” will also offer a service to public health and medical professionals that enable them to better focus their research and approaches to HIV/AIDS in culturally sensitive, effective practices.

Approach, Structure and Style

In capturing the penetration of HIV/AIDS of young black gay males in large inner cities, four trips are planned to New York, New York; Los Angeles, California; Atlanta, Georgia, and Washington, D.C. In these cities, interviews with victims of the disease and their personal stories will be documented. The documentary will be presented to colleges, universities, and film festivals across the country. More importantly, it will also serve as an educational video for inner city youth and will be disseminated throughout large cities’ high schools with large populations of young black men.

This proposed video documentary aims to put faces to the statistics and personal experiences to the reports and studies that we are becoming increasingly aware of. In hopes of creating an educational tool far more powerful than any textbook or news report could capture or convey, “A Community Dying” will have a synthetic approach to documentary composed of interviews, direct cinema and compilation. Interviews along with voice-over narration will narrate the documentary. Personal, intimate encounters and testimony of HIV/AIDS victims will be the outlining format of this piece. Direct cinema or cinema veritì of the spread of HIV in African American communities will appear throughout the film as well. These records of the current, on-going events will imply a residual sense of exigency for something to be done soon. A compilation of still photographs and somber music will be incorporated within in the documentary to capture the seriousness and importance of the topic.

With the above format, “A Dying Community” will be edited with Sergei Eisenstein’s concept of Soviet Montage. A collision of the interviews, reports and facts, and still photography and music will create a non-linear documentary that allows the viewer to create a new concept of homosexuality and HIV in the African American community. The act of connecting, building and assembling the different elements will provide a confrontational message that impacts the viewer with a new idea of thinking about HIV/AIDS and all its preventive measures.
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Itinerary, Budget and Equipment

The following itinerary is the tentative plan of action. Included is a budget that reflects expenses related to travel and production. There will be two other documenters that will assist in the production of this documentary.

Itinerary:

March 8 Fly to Los Angeles from RDU
March 10 Fly to New York from LA
March 13 Fly to Washington, D.C. from NY
March 15 Fly to Atlanta, Georgia from DC
March 17 Fly back to RDU from Atlanta
Summer 2002 Documentary production and development
Fall 2002 Presentation/dissemination of documentary

Budget:

Travel Expenses (for 3 people):

Airfare $2500

Car Rental $500

Lodging $700

Food $300

Production Expenses:

Sony DXC-D30 / BVW-50 digital Betacam SP $600 per day
Camera Package
Sony AJ-LT75 DVC Pro Portable Edit System $600
Shure FP-33 Portable Stereo Mixer 3 x 2 $50
Sony E6-120 HMEX Pro Hi8 digital video tape $19 each
With 10 days of filming and the use of six digital video tapes, the total budget for the
documentary is estimated around $10,800.

Equipment:

• Digital Betacam Camera Package:
DIGITAL BETACAM PORTABLE
STANDARD ZOOM LENS
REAR ZOOM CONTROL
LIGHTWEIGHT TRIPOD
8" COLOR FIELD MONITOR
POWER SUPPLY - BATTERIES - CHARGER
FIELD MIXER
SHOTGUN MICROPHONE / ZEPPELIN / FISHPOLE
PRESENTERS MIC
(2) HARDWIRED LAVALIER MICROPHONES
BREAKAWAY HARNESS
HEADPHONES
PORTABLE BRACE AUDIO ORGANIZER
3 HEAD LIGHT KIT W/CHIMERA
(2) KEY LIGHTS W/STANDS
• Portable Editing System
• Portable Studio Mixer
• Digital Video Tapes

Production Schedule

Shooting will begin on March 8 in Los Angeles. Interviews will be conducted and filmed. Still photographs will be taken of the city and the people interviewed in all four cities. Minor editing will be done the first of shooting. On March 10, footage of HIV/AIDS victims will be shot in New York and last until March 12. Severe documentation of the daily life and practice of a full-blown AIDS victim will be done in New York. On March 13 shooting will begin in Washington, DC and last for two days. Final shooting will occur in Atlanta on March 15 for two day as well. Major editing will start on March 21 and continue throughout the summer where cuts and music will be added. Late August, “A Community Dying” will go into post-production where dissemination to high schools, colleges and universities, as well as film festivals will take place.

Treatment

1) Character Description:
The characters of the documentary are young, gay, black urban males infected with HIV/AIDS. Accurate description and representation of the character are the focus of the documentary.

2) General Plot Sequence:
Interviews are conducted and shown throughout the documentary in a manner that will allow an accurate depiction and portrayal of the lives of gay black males. Cameras also follow the characters to gain a thorough visual concept of the character’s daily life. Still photographs are edited into the documentary to provide transitions and non-linearity within the video. The general plot sequence of the documentary is arranged as an introduction of each of the characters followed by individual accounts into their personal lives. Concluding the documentary is a segment that reinforces homosexual awareness and prevention of HIV.

3) Important Stylistic Features:
“A Dying Community” is a 60-minute documentary that addresses the widespread growth of HIV contraction among young black gay males in large urban cities. Editing with the concept of Soviet Montage is the distinguishing feature of “A Dying Community.” This rhetorical documentary has a synthetic approach composed of interviews, direct cinema and compilation. The combination of the various elements serves as a non-linear method to a new perception of African American gay males who are infected with HIV/AIDS.

Work Cited

Hanley, Daniel Q. AIDS Rampant Among Young Gay Blacks. Chicago: Associated Press, 2001: 1-2. 15 November 2001 [http://www.aegis.com/news/ap/2001/AP010203.html]

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