Dora Não Cansou de Viver… [A film in the making]

[Emanuel Brauna-Lechat is a filmmaker from Maceió. ‘Dora Não Cansou de Viver…’ is a short film about many things, including access to healthcare and the precarity of daily life in Brasil. Manu needs some help finishing the film before April 7th, World Health Day 2020. One simple way to share holiday cheer (and some dough) is by giving to his crowdfunding campaign on Catarse, which supports the final film shoot in late February. xo, Todd]

T: Hi Manu. It’s been so nice getting to see you more lately since the Somos meetings at Tapera Taperá bar. And, I really like the bar, so now I have this ‘instant’ new hang out. Please send me your work hours each week when you get them so that I may follow along:)))

It’s a particularly dark moment in Brazilian history, wouldn’t you say?

E: Brazil is currently going through an, in fact, very worrisome moment for its public policy, in a general sense. In culture, one of the most affected sectors in this current government, we have (quietly) witnessed systematic cuts of rights that had been acquired by society throughout the years. See, for example, the welfare reforms that do not favor workers at all, the veto of the demarcation of indigenous lands, the extinction of the ministry of labor and culture, among other arbitrary determinations. I would say that we are living in a period of total social retrocession. 

O Brasil vive, de fato, um momento bastante preocupante na política pública de um modo geral, sendo a cultura, um dos setores mais afetados pelo atual governo, temos testemunhado( quietos) cortes sistemáticos de direitos adquiridos pela sociedade ao longo dos anos, vide reforma previdenciária, que nada favorece o trabalhador, veto das demarcações das áreas indígenas, extinção dos ministérios do trabalho e cultura, entre outras determinações arbitrárias. Eu diria que estamos vivendo um período de total retrocesso social.

T: Have you seen the film, Bacurau yet? I saw it at Lincoln Center with like a 1000 lefty Brazilians in the audience. Rsrs:)  So this theme of the sertão is coming up now a lot in Brasil and in Brasilian cultural production. I’m doing some writing on this, but for now I wanna bounce a question to you. What is your film about and why is it important now?

E: I watched Bacurau and define it as one of the most important works of national cinema in the last decades, a work that puts us before our role as citizens. We are put in a position of action in a brilliant way, it is impossible to leave the film without being touched and transformed as the social elements that we are.

My film follows a different line of narrative, however, the essence and the goals are the same. DORA NÃO CANSOU DE VIVER… tells the story of the struggle of an elderly lady who is black, a mother, and the widow of a handicapped man who depended on her for everything. With her retirement pension, she has to support herself and still cover the costs of her lung cancer treatment, which evolves tragically. This is the first layer of the film, what one sees with the naked eye. However, the true story is told at its second layer, where we have the presence of an invisible and implacable enemy, THE STATE. On the other hand, it is a film that opens up doors and gives visibility to actors who are black, who have motor disabilities, and who are over 60 years of age. For this reason I consider it socially important.

Vi Bacurau e o defino como uma das obras mais importantes do cinema nacional das últimas décadas, uma obra que nos coloca diante de nosso papel enquanto cidadãos , de forma brilhante somos colocados num lugar de ação, é impossível sair do filme sem sermos tocados e transformados enquanto elementos sociais que somos.O meu filme segue uma linha narrativa diferente, todavia, a essência e os objetivos são os mesmos. DORA NÃO CANSOU DE VIVER… conta a história de luta de uma idosa, negra e mãe viúva de um desabilitado físico que depende dela para tudo, com sua aposentadoria ela tem que se manter e ainda custear o tratamento do câncer de pulmão que evolui tragicamente. Esta é a primeira camada do filme, o que se vê a olho nu, porém, a verdadeira história é contada na segunda camada, onde temos a presença de um vilão invisível e implacável, O ESTADO. Por outro lado é um filme que abre portas e dá visibilidade a atores negros, portadores de desabilidades motoras e com mais de 60 anos, por este motivo o considero socialmente importante.

T: So, you are an artist I take it? What has been your road to filmmaking? And is this your first film?

E: I consider myself a humanitarian artist, committed to social welfare. I have a discreet style of representing conflicts, almost silent, but always with a lot of density, I am an artist of layers.

I started to become professionally interested in cinema in 2010, and from then on I have been through a lot of books, courses and workshops on the theme. During film school I produced some short films and later participated in several friends’ projects, in a variety of roles. As a director, DORA NÃO CANSOU DE VIVER… will be my debut work, and currently, I am also working on the development of my first feature-length film, entitled OCEÂNICO.

Me considero um artista humanitário, comprometido com o bem-estar social. Tenho um estilo discreto de apresentar os conflitos, quase silencioso, mas sempre com muita densidade, sou um artista de camadas. Comecei a me interessar profissionalmente por cinema em 2010, de lá pra cá foram muitos livros, cursos e workshops sobre o tema. Durante a escola de cinema produzi alguns curtas-metragens e posteriormente participei de diversos projetos de amigos nas mais variadas funções. Como diretor, DORA NÃO CANSOU DE VIVER… será meu trabalho de estréia, atualmente, também estou trabalhando no desenvolvimento do meu primeiro longa, entitulado OCEÂNICO.

T: Lastly, is there any way we can help? Like can we see a teaser or contribute to your crowdfunding campaign?

E: I created a CROWDFUNDING to make it possible to fund the movie, and asides from contributing, the supporters will also be able to see a teaser of the film, made exclusively for its promotion.

Criei um CROWDFUNDING para viabilização do projeto, além de contribuir, os apoiadores poderão ver um teaser do filme feito exclusivamente para divulgação.

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See also: Emanuel Brauna-Lechat interviews Momô de Oliveira #LPW2020

The ideas for Partner Tiles

The original idea for an iconic tile came from Saouf in Port Said. He imagined what it would be like to walk into a Cairo cafe and see an iconic tile on the back of a laptop. A tile that let him know (if he so desired) he could talk to this person about HIV. Later as the game took shape, Adham created a signature tile in the shape of an ‘all lines’ stylized heart. This heart carried the LUV logo at first and then became the template to share partner logos.


The LUV game is a part of Luv ’til it Hurts. The idea is based on a game played around the world called Exquisite Corpse. It’s a non-competitive game that can be played with only two people as well as a large group. The game is super easy. A new design or ‘visual work’ is made each time people play the game together. The LUV game simply offers an excuse to talk about HIV and stigma in a range of settings from museum to public space or even on the street. The game idea came up when I asked a young design time in Port Said (Egypt) to help me communicate the values and goals of Luv ’til it Hurts. The LUV game launched officially in Bogotá and Grenoble in late October; again during São Paulo’s December 1st AIDS Walk; and will soon be available online in the general period of World AIDS Day 2019.


PARTNER TILES:
On each occasion the LUV game was played–in Grenoble (French/Arabic), Bogotá (Spanish) and São Paulo (Portuguese)–LUV offered a specially-designed heart tile with the initiative’s logo inside. This could be placed in the center of the floor to get the game started. Other tiles would be placed around it. As I was making all the tiles at the same time, I also offered each location the partner tiles from other locations. From the beginning the LUV project has developed a motley crew of affiliations. We call this a coalition and it is open for joining … if you like who we are, that is. We also offer all these folks a partner tile. Having a logo is a part of doing something. Usually it is the first hologram of an idea. A serious idea can be formed in the chambers of design, we know well. An idea without a form can be helpless. So if LUV can help boost new ideas–being one itself–then that is what it wants to do. Helping a good idea to go faster is a worthwhile endeavor in and of itself. 

The Think Twice Collective based at the University of Leiden (Netherlands) got involved by bringing on 5 more languages of instructions for the LUV Game. And we’ve discussed how the LUV project might be a part of their work local to the Leiden campus in the future. In our brainstorm, there are many ways to have a campus-focused conversation on HIV and stigma. The idea of interactions that use the LUV game using all partner tiles (to date) rather than only the Luv ’til it Hurts one represents the ethos of the project and has the value of sharing initiatives from other parts of the world. While It’s not quite Abbie Hoffman (à la Steal this Book), we do wish for each and every visible, verifiable piece of the project to be used as soon as possible. So if the general brand of LUV can help another new initiative that’s great. We will soon change our (brand) look a bit, so please take it while it’s there. 

In the best of circumstances, sharing partner tiles from other locations and being able to learn more about the initiatives on our site (linking to their sites) will help to share information about and conditions experienced by other positive people. We hope there is some solidarity in this design function. It is a gesture and maybe more. 

The partner tiles are all here in this booklet:

Please use and re-use the Luv game in the most generous, unconstrained ways you can imagine. And, well, tell us about it if you have time. 

LUV game feedback from São Paulo + Somos Mais + AIDS Walk

About a month before the São Paulo AIDS Walk (now in its 3rd year), which was also on World AIDS Day, December 1, 2019, a group of positive folk and peers began meeting on Tuesday nights for a drink. 

The idea of a Sarau came quickly after the name of the motley group, Somos… or Somos Mais. We are visual artists, community organizers, organization makers, filmmaker, bartender, health worker, fashion designer, poets, performers and couple who make a Centro club and art space called Um55. Our first Sarau Transante was on Saturday, November 30th at Um55, the day before World AIDS Day

One idea came up that we liaise with the Municipal Secretary of Human Rights. As a member of Somos Mais, I would offer up the LUV game as a dialogue piece and lean into the performance atmosphere. We already had some of the first cloth hearts that George was making, so it was easy to engage folks to write ideas, thoughts and questions on the paper tiles but first telling them what we intended to do the following day with cloth tiles. And we gave away the first of them to people who intended including members of  Coletivo Gleba do Pêssego who screened their film ‘Bonde’ during the Sarau. 

The following day we personally distributed (offered) over 60 more hearts to walkers on the AIDS walk and at the public park where it ended. Giving the heart is an expression of love and I’m still digesting all the encounters I had when offering them and tying them around people’s necks. The game was more of a ‘display’ with big tiles at the public park where the walk ended. People wrote notes (or ‘recado do amor’ without being prompted and laid them on the large tiles in formation on the pavement. We had all walked hard, and there were beautiful performances of theatre and poetry and talks with the artists going on. No explanation was needed. 

Later that night I went to Largo do Arouche to the regular Sunday night gathering of Arouchianos and handed out a few more hearts left in pocket from earlier in the day. I wanted to especially thank Arouchianos for their work in the Center. It makes a lot of sense to me. I think we may do something special next year during the Love Positive Women holidays (Feb 1-14, 2020). The LUV heart is now added to their bundle of flags and banners that crown the small tent where a generator and mic stand sit during the lively nights when they hold court at Largo do Arouche. 

LUV game feedback from Grenoble + Ankh Association

The first public presentation of Exposition Points de Vie, organized by Ankh Association and dedicated to people living with HIV in Egypt, took place on October 26th in Grenoble, France. The exhibition gave light to their experiences, joys, and difficulties. It involved the interactive game by Luv ‘Til it Hurts, a Falafel party, and Karaoke. The benefits went to حملة اعرف اكثر – Campagne ‘Pour en savoir plus’ – ‘Know more’ campaign .

Nic/Taha:
Hope the event in Colombia went well! I just wanted to send you a short feedback of our event in Grenoble yesterday. It went really well, a lot of people attended and they were all really interested by the project and the discussion was really interesting as well.

Todd/LUV:
Was the LUV game useful helping opening a dialogue and/or holding the space you envisioned for the event?

Nic/Taha:
Regarding the game, we had some difficulties with the printing process, as we couldn’t find in the short period of time a printing house that had the kind of material that we wanted, so we printed the tiles on the thickest paper we could find, then had them plastified. It worked well anyway to play, except for the fact that some shapes were really too small so we only used the medium and big ones.

Todd/LUV:
Can you say more on how you used the came and what came up?

Nic/Taha:
Also, even if the game is supposed to be used to start or open a discussion, we used it at the end of the event, but it was also a good way to close it in a more playful and participatory way. We had a lot of really encouraging messages, among them: 

Silence=dead

Transnational solidarity

treatment for all

u=u

life goes on

hope

… and some really nice drawings 🙂

Wrap love in latex – Interview with Juan De La Mar

TL: Hi Juan,

If memory serves this is a line in your film, De Gris a POSITHIVO … ‘wrap love in latex?’. I think it is when you are walking in the streets of Bogotá (all wrapped in plastic wrap).

Juan, first, I really appreciate your film, and furthermore it was great to have it privately screened at the event at El Parche on October 30th in Bogotá. I also really enjoyed being a part of the Laboratorio Luciérnagas performance and intervention at the Botanical Gardens on October 25th. The whole trip was amazing for me, and reminded me why I’m making the Luv ’til it Hurts project. 

I understand (I think) the line in your film ‘wrap your love in latex’ as a question of sorts. I understand the sentiment to be something like this:

To have contracted HIV means one likely didn’t use a condom in that instance. By not wrapping one’s love in latex on that occasion, something changes. HIV is passed via semen or blood.  And after that, there is a new prerogative to ‘contain’ the disease. Like, you may have to ‘wrap your love’ in order to not pass it further. I find that (even) friends and family can convey guilt to us because we did not generally or on that specific occasion wrap our love (or our dicks) in latex. In some instances it presupposes that we were taking careless risks. Friends and family sometimes take that personally, I’ve learned. So, I see your statement as a question: Can we always know to wrap our love before we use it or share it?

So, for starters, what did you mean with that line?

JDLM: En primer lugar, para mí es un placer y un verdadero honor comenzar de esta manera nuestra colaboración con Luv ´til it Hurts, una alianza que traspasa fronteras y supera las barreras –inclusive del idioma- que he descubierto, con mi diagnóstico de VIH que no existen. 

¿Cómo forrar en látex el amor? Fue una pregunta que me hice tres días después de recibir el diagnóstico, porque sentía que tenía que protegerme de todo lo que me rodeaba, que estaba en una ciudad llena de bacterias, que hasta el agua que tomaba me podía enfermar (como me lo hicieron entender los médicos); pero también era una protección hacia afuera porque sentía que podía ser peligroso y contaminante para las demás personas y las debía cuidar de mí. Esta sensación fue muy triste porque se interponía en mi intención de compartir el amor y me hacía sentir que ya no podía hacerlo, sentir que tenía que guardarme todo lo que sentía para mí y que no podría compartirlo con nadie más, ni con mi familia, ni con mis amigxs, ni con las personas que me relacionaba sexo-afectivamente.  

Después, con la información que he adquirido y el proceso de dotar de otro sentido y cambiar mi relación con el diagnóstico y con la VIHda misma, sentí necesario compartir esta pregunta con el mundo, porque me parece que vivimos con tanto miedo que siempre nos estamos forrando, protegiendo, conteniendo, estancando, que nuestras relaciones tienen que estar con una bolsa plástica de por medio, y quiero ahora, que no necesariamente sea así. 

TL: And, how was it to be filmed in the streets of Bogotá all wrapped in cellophane? 

JDLM: El cortometraje lo realizamos para la Escuela Nacional de Cine en Bogotá, Colombia. Como yo soy director y personaje principal necesitaba un grupo de trabajo que estuviera muy conectado con la historia y la situación. Yo comencé a comunicarles mis miedos, mis sensaciones y lo que quería transmitir y justo en esos días hicieron un simulacro de evacuación en Bogotá, entonces acudiendo a mi frase de forrar en látex el amor les propuse que me envolvieran en papel de alimentos para caminar por el sector de la ciudad donde estaba el simulacro. 

Fue en verdad extraña la sensación de encierro, porque no podía mover las manos, no veía bien y además había cantidades de personas caminando, observándome, tomándome fotos, sin embargo esa sensación, era la más cercana a lo que sentí el día de mi diagnóstico y me acompañó por lo menos 6 meses después. 

TL: What were the reactions by passers-by? And did you get to talk about HIV and the theme of the film with any curious onlookers?

JDLM: Las personas preguntaban si me había quemado, si estaba enfermo, si me había pasado algo, pero con el equipo decidimos no contestar ninguna de estas preguntas, solo estábamos interviniendo el espacio público. En general, era una reacción de extrañeza, en un momento de por sí muy atípico como es un simulacro cuando las personas no creen que están en ningún riesgo, pero tienen que salir de sus trabajos y alterar su cotidianidad. Después, recuerdo que subimos a Transmilenio (el Sistema de Transporte Público de Bogotá) y nadie se sentaba a mi lado, pero tampoco preguntaban nada. 

TL: I thought that was the brilliant part about the Laboratorio Luciérnagas performance / intervention on the ‘free night’ at Bogotá’s Botanical Gardens. You had hundreds of passers-by … could you compare a bit the experience of making your film in the public space and being a part of Laboratorio Luciérnagas? 

JDLM: Yo llegué al Laboratorio Luciérnabas dos años después de mi diagnóstico, pero hubiera deseado estar en este espacio desde que comencé mi proceso, de alguna manera era algo que estaba necesitando. La posibilidad de intercambiar conocimientos y hablar con personas que están habitando la situación y la VIHda como lo estoy haciendo yo y que además están cuestionándose sobre otros imaginarios y formas de relacionarse, ha sido muy enriquecedora para mí. Sin embargo, la Noche de las Luciérnagas fue un espacio mucho más acogedor y amigable que el momento en el que caminé forrado en látex, porque ya no me encontraba solo, ahora estaba en un proceso colectivo de intercambio y resonancia de sentires y sanación grupal. Aunque siento que las personas tenían una curiosidad similar y una expectativa que ocurriera algo más allá de lo que estaba pasando. 

TL: I know we can’t share the film yet due to film festival competition, so please give us a short description here:

JDLM: De Gris a POSITHIVO, es un documental autobiográfico en el que comparto mi experiencia y la de mi familia cuando me diagnosticaron VIH positivo. Mi miedo a la muerte, la cotidianidad y los momentos complicados del inicio del diagnóstico son contados a través del diario que comencé a escribir 3 días después de esta noticia. Hago parte al expectador de mi viaje de regreso a la VIHda a través de un ritual performance en el que me forro todo el cuerpo en látex para renacer y llenarme de color.

TL: Where do you hope the film will be seen? 

JDLM: Mi mayor deseo es que el documental se pueda ver en los lugares que pueda generar transformación en la mentalidad y el estigma de las personas que viven con VIH, sus familiares y quienes aún no han tenido ningún contacto con el diagnóstico. Con Salmón Producciones (productora documental de Lissette Orozco) estamos buscando un distribuidor con el que podamos hacer una estrategia mixta, para mostrarlo en Festivales de Cine, de Temática LGBT y de Derechos Humanos y en espacios comunitarios, educativos y artísticos en todo el mundo. 

TL: Hey, you brought a colleague from Clínica del Alma Invita to the El Parche event the other night. So glad you did. Wanna tell us more about that place and what it means to you?

JDLM: Siento que el VIH como otras situaciones en la vida te colocan de frente a la pregunta de la muerte y nuestra existencia trascendente, por esto mi proceso artístico y de creación ha estado relacionado con una búsqueda espiritual fuera de iglesias y de cultos religiosos, en este camino encontré Casa Ocho un espacio de terapia alternativa en Bogotá, en donde pude trabajar el miedo a la muerte, mi relación con los límites físicos y la nueva VIHda a la que me estaba enfrentando. Después de este proceso, decidimos crear en este mismo lugar Clínica del Alma, como un espacio de diálogo, contención y compartir en el que vamos a hacer sesiones de escucha entre pares para personas con diagnósticos crónicos (VIH, cáncer), familiares y cuidadores y personal de la salud. Esta iniciativa obedece sobretodo a una necesidad de crear y compartir más espacios en los que sea posible hablar y transformar los imaginarios desde un lugar de experiencia entre personas que nos ha ocurrido la misma situación y hemos encontrado herramientas que nos han ayudado a transformarlas y ahora las queremos compartir.

Image stills of film De Gris a POSITHIVO, provided by director Juan De La Mar.

Synopsis: http://www.salmonproducciones.com/asesorias-y-alianzas/de-gris-a-posithivo.html

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DeGrisAPOSITHIVO/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/degrisaposithivo/

Read also: Relatory Bogotá

_______________________________________________________________

TL: Hi Juan,

If memory serves this is a line in your film, De Gris a POSITHIVO … ‘wrap love in latex?’. I think it is when you are walking in the streets of Bogotá (all wrapped in plastic wrap).

Juan, first, I really appreciate your film, and furthermore it was great to have it privately screened at the event at El Parche on October 30th in Bogotá. I also really enjoyed being a part of the Laboratorio Luciérnagas performance and intervention at the Botanical Gardens on October 25th. The whole trip was amazing for me, and reminded me why I’m making the Luv ’til it Hurts project. 

I understand (I think) the line in your film ‘wrap your love in latex’ as a question of sorts. I understand the sentiment to be something like this:

To have contracted HIV means one likely didn’t use a condom in that instance. By not wrapping one’s love in latex on that occasion, something changes. HIV is passed via semen or blood.  And after that, there is a new prerogative to ‘contain’ the disease. Like, you may have to ‘wrap your love’ in order to not pass it further. I find that (even) friends and family can convey guilt to us because we did not generally or on that specific occasion wrap our love (or our dicks) in latex. In some instances it presupposes that we were taking careless risks. Friends and family sometimes take that personally, I’ve learned. So, I see your statement as a question: Can we always know to wrap our love before we use it or share it?

So, for starters, what did you mean with that line?

JDLM: Firstly, for me it is a pleasure and a true honor to begin our collaboration with Luv ’til it Hurts in this way, an alliance that trespasses borders and overcomes barriers — including language’s — that I have come to find out do not exist, through my diagnosis of HIV.

How to wrap love in latex? This was a question that I asked myself three days after receiving the diagnosis, because I felt like I had to protect myself of everything that surrounded me, that I was in a city full of bacteria, that even the water that I drank could make me sick (as doctors made it seem); but it was also a protection towards the outside, because I felt that I could be dangerous and contagious to other people and that I had to be careful with myself. This feeling was very sad because it interposed my intention of sharing love and made me feel like I could not do it, like I had to keep everything that I felt to myself and that I could not share it with anyone else, be it family, or friends, or people with whom I would relate sex-affectively. 

Afterwards, with the information that I had acquired and the process of endowing different senses and changing my relationship with the diagnosis and with HIV itself, I felt it necessary to share this question with the world, because it seems like we live in quite a bit of fear, as we are always wrapping, protecting, containing, sealing. Our relationships have to be with a plastic bag of medicine, and now, I want it to not necessarily be like that.

TL: And, how was it to be filmed in the streets of Bogotá all wrapped in cellophane? 

JDLM: The short film was realized for the Escuela Nacional de Cine en Bogotá, Colombia. Since I am a director and main character, I needed a work group that was very connected with this history and situation. I started to communicate to them my fears, feelings, and what I wanted to transmit. On these same days there was an evacuation drill in Bogotá, so, attending to my phrase of wrapping love in latex, I proposed to them that they wrap me in food wrapping, to walk like that through the part of the city in which the drill was going on. It was actually strange the sensation of being enclosed, because I could not move my hands, I could not see well and also there was a large quantity of people walking, observing me, taking pictures of me. Nevertheless, this sensation was the closest to what I felt on the day of my diagnosis, which followed me for at least 6 months afterwards.

TL: What were the reactions by passers-by? And did you get to talk about HIV and the theme of the film with any curious onlookers?

JDLM: People asked me if I had burnt myself, if I was sick, if something had happened to me, but with the team we decided to not answer any of these questions, we were just intervening in public space. In general, it was a reaction of finding it strange, in a moment that was in itself atypical, such as a drill in which people don’t believe that they are actually under any risk, but have to leave their work and change their routine. Afterwards, I remember that we took a Transmilenio (the Public Transport System of Bogotá) and no one would sit next me, but also no one asked me anything.

TL: I thought that was the brilliant part about the Laboratorio Luciérnagas performance / intervention on the ‘free night’ at Bogotá’s Botanical Gardens. You had hundreds of passers-by … could you compare a bit the experience of making your film in the public space and being a part of Laboratorio Luciérnagas? 

JDLM: I arrived to Laboratório Luciérnabas two years after my diagnosis, but I would have liked to have been in that space from the beginning of my process, in a way, it was something that I needed. The possibility of exchanging knowledge and talking to people who are inhabiting the situation and life (VIHda), as I am, and that are also asking themselves about other imaginaries and ways of relating, has been very enriching to me. Nevertheless, the Noche de las Luciérnagas was a space that was much more welcoming and friendly than the moment when I was walking around in latex, because I didn’t find myself alone anymore, I was now in a collective process of exchange, of resonance of feelings, and of group healing. Although I felt that people had a similar curiosity and expectation that something would happen beyond what was happening.

TL: I know we can’t share the film yet due to film festival competition, so please give us a short description here:

JDLM: De Gris a POSITHIVO is an autobiographical documentary in which I share my experience and that of my family, when I was diagnosed with being HIV positive. My fear of death, the day to day, and the complicated moments of the beginning of the diagnosis are told through a diary that I began to write 3 days before the news. I am part of the spectators of my journey back to life (VIHda) through a performance ritual in which I wrap my entire body in latex to be reborn and to fill myself with color.

TL: Where do you hope the film will be seen? 

JDLM: My biggest wish is for the documentary to be seen in places that can generate transformation in the mentality and stigma of the people who live with HIV, their family members, and those who still have not had any contact with the diagnosis. With Salmón Producciones (Lissette Orozco’s documentary production company) we are looking for a distributer with whom we can have a mixed strategy, to show it at movie festivals, of LGBT and Human Right themes, as well as in community, educative, and artistic spaces all over the world.

TL: Hey, you brought a colleague from Clínica del Alma Invita to the El Parche event the other night. So glad you did. Wanna tell us more about that place and what it means to you?

JDLM: I feel that HIV, like other situations in life, makes you face the question of death and our transcendental existence. That is why my process of art and creation has been related to a spiritual search outside of churches and religious cults, and in this path I have found Casa Ocho, an alternative therapy space in Bogotá, where I could work out my fear of death, my relationship with physical limitations and with a new life (VIHda). After this process, we decided to create in the same place the Clínica del Alma, as a space for dialogue, support, and sharing, in which we will do listening sessions in pairs, for people with chronic diagnoses (HIV, cancer), family members and carers, and health practitioners. This initiative obeys above all a necessity to create and share more spaces in which it is possible to speak and transform imaginaries. It departs from a place of experience between people to whom similar situations have happened, as we have found tools that have helped us transform them, and we now want to share.

Image stills of film De Gris a POSITHIVO, provided by director Juan De La Mar.

Synopsis: http://www.salmonproducciones.com/asesorias-y-alianzas/de-gris-a-posithivo.html

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DeGrisAPOSITHIVO/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/degrisaposithivo/

Read also: Relatory Bogotá

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