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| Hello Friends of SistahGirl Last I wrote, I was on the eve of the first day of shooting SistahGirl: Black Women & HIV/AIDS Documentary Project and now it is Friday and you are probably wondering
how things went (or at least I would hope that anyone out there would wonder how it went). Well, as any indie doc filmmaker can attest, you always have to be prepared for the unexpected both good and bad. Actually, nothing bad happened at all, just some surprises. On the Sunday before the shoot, I had lost my original camera op due to travel difficulties so I quickly decided that I would rent the camera equipment and shoot my self. Now, some might be worried about this kind of decision, but rest assured that my hand, though quite small (some would say umpalumpa-ish) is steady and intuitive and I find no better peace then standing for hours on end and finding the beauty in the frame and lingering there to gather a few precious moments of human beings sharing their stories. Monday-- I arrived at PC&E in Atlanta, a great production house with an awesome staff. All production people have this look (no, not that look) and an instant familiarity with one another and it is nice if just for a couple days to have this identity again, since most of my work up to this point has been as producer and company CEO. I did not want to just hire some random shooter for a project like this since
sensitivity to the topic is paramount. I pick up the equipment and now ready for the shoot on Tuesday. Tuesday-- I arrive at the first location, a learning center in the heart of the city, with my sound man Reggie Simpson already there. That was a sigh of relief because a lot of doc making is just hoping and praying that everyone shows up at the right place at the right time,
especially if you don't know them ahead of time. Reggie is an awesome and experienced one stop shop that can do sound, camera, and post production. We are there to film Kenyatta, a senior high school student who wrote a powerful spoken word piece about how girls needed to love themselves and the risks of moving too fast for the approval of a boy. Kenyatta is a volunteer there at the learning center and was also well spoken in the one on one interview. The footage will be edited soon so you can see and hear her words that many grown women
probably need to hear. Next, we went to the NAMES Project (got a little lost on the way there) where the AIDS Memorial Quilt that many of you have probably seen throughout the years since its inception, but may not know that it is based and housed out of Atlanta.
The NAMES Project has a program they are doing titled Call My Name, which is an effort to get more African Americans to participate in quilt making for those in the Black community that have passed away from AIDS complications. There is a lot of stigma in the Black community around HIV/AIDS and the quilt is a non-threatening way of getting people to focus on commemorating the lives of family and friends. Please check them out at www.aidsquilt.org to find out more info. Jada Harris is the person to talk with about setting up a workshop. A powerful moment occurred when a young woman named Ebony came to the workshop wanting to create a quilt to remember her mother who had passed away from AIDS complications from a needle prick she had sustained while working as a nurse. She talked about her mother and how she continued to embrace and love life after her diagnosis and how important it is for families and communities to show unconditional love for family and friends who become HIV positive. I hope to follow Ebony as she creates this quilt to honor her mother. I am now getting clear that my role as filmmaker. I am really documenting the relationship that those in the Black community have towards HIV/AIDS and it is individual and extremely complex. Wednesday-- Reggie and I arrive on the Spelman College campus at about 1pm. I have only $ 3 in cash and there are two cars so I am digging for change looking like a cross between a bag lady and Christianne Amounpour. The attendant finally just lets us park and we set up. My intention now is to get some "on the street interviews" from some students. Most folks are either too shy, unwilling, or on their way to class to stop and answer questions about HIV on the campus, though I do manage to get one interview. I had a Michael Moore moment when I was stopped by a security guard as I tried to go onto Morehouse College campus. He asked me who I was with and I said I am with my own company, 3rd Eye Films, Inc. He paused, blinked and started talking into his CB radio. Now for those of you unfamiliar; Morehouse, Spelman, and Clark Atlanta University form the Atlanta University (AU) Center and all sit in a ten yard radius of each other so they are separate but connected. The guard informed me that I needed to talk with Media Relations before I could film at Morehouse. A nervous twitch in my thumb somehow knocked on the record button while all this was happening. I'm going to have a doctor check it out next
week so that I will never risk this twitch happening again. I could be sued for that type of thing. Anyway, so after some wild goose chasing and run around, we simply retreated the ten yards back over to the Spelman campus. After some time spent trying to get some Spelman "on the street interviews," we headed to the Women's Center for our scheduled interview with Dr. Beverly Guy-Sheftall, an accomplished and well-known Black feminist scholar. Dr. Guy-Sheftall had some powerful things to say about the necessity of discussing the role that patriarchy plays in the
ability of a woman to have authority over her body and sexuality and the differences in the experience of that between African and black American women. She also talked about the need for men and women to have both separate and collective spaces to talk about the ways that definitions of felinity and masculinity can be transformed so that healthier communities can be fostered. We then set up for an interview with four students from Spelman who discussed everything from the importance of family and the presence of fathers in their lives to self-esteem being a journey that is constantly being re-evaluated as they grow and come into their own. These women were amazing in their insight and reflected the diversity of black women ranging in the hues of deepest ebony to cafe au lait and hair textures that were
braided, fro-ed, and relaxed. I feel my self getting a sense of the magnitude of this project as I hear the women's voices. As they talk about the role that invisibility as black women plays into self esteem and all say that theory is one thing and practice is another. This is something I can definitely attest to and it is refreshing to hear these women be so honest. Next, we go to a quilting workshop that is being done at Clark Atlanta's campus with some students that Jada had told us about at the NAMES Project on Tuesday. I got some footage of some students making quilts and met Marquetta again who facilitates these workshops around the city. One professor named Candy talked about the importance of quilt making tradition in her family and how important it was to keep the tradition alive to pass down to younger generations. Reggie and I then broke for dinner and traded crazy production stories before heading to our final location of the day which was Church of the Master Presbyterian off of MLK. We arrived as the choir was rehearsing the brilliant Negro spiritual "I've been Buked, I've Been Scorned" (those are things as a filmmaker you don't plan, but make all the difference when you are putting the pieces together.) We took some shots of that and then interviewed Pastor Paul Roberts. Pastor
Roberts spoke of the role that the church should and could play in discussing HIV/AIDS and then revealed his own personal account of a first cousin that had passed away from AIDS. LaQuita Parks was also interviewed and talked about her niece Shadonna who had passed from AIDS complications when she was 3 years old. Shadonna would have been 17 years old this past week. Shadonna passed in the early '90s when people did not have as much knowledge as is available now about transmission and LaQuita talked about being fearful early on about touching or having her children play with Shadonna, but that the fear faded once she educated her self. Ms. Parks also talked about how Shadonna's grandmother cared for and loved Shadonna unconditionally from the beginning and never wavered even when she her self was accidentally pricked a couple of times while administering shots to Shadonna. Talking to each of these individuals about family members that had been lost to AIDS was truly moving and a powerful account for families who may be experiencing the same thing. All said how important it is to love unconditionally the family member who has been diagnosed with HIV and to not waste time being fearful and uneducated about what is happening. HIV/AIDS is a major global pandemic that seems overwhelming but I learned the importance of starting where you are; starting the healing process in your own home, in your own family, and your own community. For every one LaQuita, Ebony, and Pastor Roberts there are hundreds if not thousands that do not feel that it is safe to speak out in this forum and share their story. These folks are every day
people that work, go to church, and have family obligations and it is not to be taken lightly their ability to share the impact that HIV/AIDS has had on their lives and that of their families. They speak for the others who cannot and I am honored to be the vessel through which the silence can end. There is still a long way to go in this shoot with more to be filmed in Atlanta, across the country and overseas yet having had just these two powerful days of filming lights a flame for what the rest of the project will be like. This was a hard fought for shoot for many reasons, not the least of which scraping together funds to get this part done, and it was all worth it. This is indie filmmaking at its best and I cannot wait to share some of this footage with you hopefully next month. Thank you to all who have shown your support for this project. I will be giving you more updates and be able to view some of the footage from this week soon. Take care and be well. Have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving! Peace & Blessings, Katherine A. Cheairs, Producer/Director SistahGirl: Black Women & HIV/AIDS Documentary Project |
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