David the Piano Player: Notes from the frontlines of life

Meet David Jenkins. Watch his testimony in church.

Faith-based involvement in the HIV epidemic continues to be critical. The courageous acts of people living with HIV/AIDS, like David, that speak truth to power where it counts need to be supported.

What do these support structure look like? Are they reports? Are they policies? How do you get people to tell the truth?

These are the questions I am thinking about as I prepare to meet the world in Mexico. I am a physician/filmmaker that is using media as a movement-building tool to bridge the silos of HIV prevention work. The questions posed are about the culture work that falls in between silos of HIV prevention and treatment. This missing dialogue and language is an obstacle to action and support.

Support is about solidarity and bridging pieces together. Media can serve as this congealing force in our interconnected cyber-world. This requires two things: listening and creating new forums for the resulting lessons to grow. I film community-based participant driven narratives on the frontlines of HIV prevention work in hopes of uniting a fragmented movement towards human rights.

As a physician, I have taken care of HIV infected and affected communities in the South Bronx, Ethiopia, and South Africa. Listening to the patients in all these settings has been a humbling lesson in solidarity and the profound obligation that comes with listening.

Those on the frontlines have been telling it like it is for a long time.

David is very clear about why he contracted HIV. He attributes it to losing his home when he was young. His story is chronicled in Root Shock (Fullilove, 2004). Unstable housing and displacement continue to be central driving forces in this epidemic. The burning of the South Bronx and its role in the propagation of HIV is a story that has been trying to fight its way into the mainstream framing of HIV for decades (Wallace, 1990). Why are we not listening?

So as I prepare to go to Mexico, the first objective is to make sure and listen to what is not being said. Some truths are too hard to tell, though many have died trying. This is partly why visual communications offers much as a tool in connecting the dots that takes HIV beyond personal responsibility and into a collective struggle. Showing what is hard to tell has to be part of a future organizing strategy.

The theme of the Mexico Conference is Universal Action Now. This will take unprecedented organizing across sectors and across continents. We need a movement. People connecting in solidarity build movements. Not just the leaders, or experts but the citizenry. It’s all profoundly political.

Visual media is ideally suited to connect those on the frontlines who get the political message with a tool that amplifies their efforts. The destructive societal forces contributing to HIV risk, whether its displacement, violence against women, or homophobia operate on a scale that has outstripped individual level interventions. Media can serve as the great equalizer if used for this targeted purpose. It’s the new tool in my doctor’s bag.

David’ testimony changed the church that day. The pastor preached about the need for discrimination against HIV to end in the church. David turned to me and said: “See what I planted.” He was right and I am committed to helping him make it grow.