The HIV Story Project

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Deborah Craig, director of LIVING POSITIVE, discusses how THE HIV STORY PROJECT continued her work in HIV storytelling…

Q: Describe your role & involvement with The HIV Story Project.

DC: I’m directing one of the shorts/vignettes in the project—a film about Sylvia Young, a Latina / Native American woman who’s been living with the disease for 15 years and who now works with HIV positive women.

Q: Why did you decide to participate?

DC: I recently finished a master of public health degree and for my thesis I directed a 15-minute film about HIV positive women in the Bay Area. I met Jorg as a result of having created this earlier film and he approached me about working on the HIV Story Project. I love the idea of having a “quilt” of stories, emphasizing the diversity of people living with HIV/AIDS, and also stressing not just the negative but the potentially “positive” aspects of living with the disease.

Q: What was your goal & vision when you started?

DC: I really wanted to tell a woman’s story, partly because I’d worked with HIV positive women before and was really impressed with their eloquence and fortitude. Also, I wanted to make sure women’s voices were heard in the project. Women’s experiences are often so very different from men’s—they have kids, they have grandkids, they are often poor and struggling and may have other health issues. HIV for many women is often only one of several huge life challenges they face—I think it’s so important to get their stories out.

Q: What was the actual experience like?

DC: My film’s not done yet but so far I’ve had a fantastic experience. I’m a gay woman and most of the folks I’ve met working on the project have been gay men, but have been so supportive and welcoming and encouraging, and eager to tell women’s stories. Also, most of the HIV positive women I’ve met have been straight, but in my experience, HIV and the desire to do something about it has been really a force for bringing together people who are really very different. I always say: If people who are similar (gay women, gay men, or whatever) can form a close relationship that’s great but not surprising, but if folks who are very different can do so, then we’re making progress! (I’m a gay, white, atheist from Berkeley, and now have a close friend who’s a black, straight, churchgoing Christian from Hayward. Now that’s an accomplishment!)

Q: What do you hope to see for The HIV Story Project in the future?

DC: I hope the project does well and reaches a lot of people, both through the film and the web site. I’ve only been working with HIV positive folks (I’m negative myself) for about 3 or 4 years, but have been really struck by HOW MUCH prejudice and ignorance remains—about how you contract the disease, about who’s likely to get, it etc.—and also how hurtful that can be to people who are living with the disease. In my mind, the way to fight this ignorance is not just distributing statistics and clinical information, but telling people’s stories. So what a perfect project. I also am hoping to expand my little short into a longer film about Native Americans living with HIV/AIDS.