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Plot

. . . A Movie that can Save Lives . . .

In the donor-fatigued, jargon-laden, taboo-filled world of HIV/AIDS, two innocent and innovative voices revive our understanding and compassion. By asking questions ("that only a child could ask"), two young girls get basic, honest, and fresh answers about the pandemic that defines our times.

The result is a refreshing and thought-provoking documentary about our inability to make the epidemic understandable to all people because of our discomfort with issues of sex and sexuality.

The fact that two kids can get to the bottom of it at the International AIDS Conference -- talking to experts, sexworkers, crossdressers and people living with AIDS-- is hilarious, hopeful and a little bit haunting . . . why have so many died because we can't talk about these subjects in an open and honest way?

Festival screenings 2007:
Swansea Bay Film Festival in Wales,
Everglades in South Africa (nominated for Best Public Service and Community)
Great Lakes Film Festival (nominated for Best Documentary Short)

Reviews:
"There is praise for the way the film breaks taboos about discussing sex" - Voice of America

"Their innocent questions elicited simple, jargon-free explanations" - The Associated Press

"A really ground-breaking film - a lot of buzz about it because it breaks a lot of the taboos" - Poz magazine

"What a wonderful film. It was brilliant way to convey important messages" - Richard Horton, editor-in-chief, the Lancet

"To have children, in their innocence, ask those questions and really force people to give a straight answer to this, I think really exemplifies why we need to talk straight about HIV? - Dr Anthony Fauci, Director, NIH/NIAID

Starring:
Vineeta and Sevilla

Co-starring:
Anthony Fauci - Director NIH Allergy & Infectious Diseases
Richard Horton - Editor-in-chief The Lancet
Laurie Garrett - Pulitzer-prize for The Coming Plague
Jose Esparza - Gates Foundation HIV vaccines
Kevin Decock - HIV/AIDS Director WHO
Helene Gayle - CEO/President CARE
Stephen Lewis - UN Special Envoy on AIDS
Craig McClure - Exec. Dir. Int'l AIDS Society
. . . and a cast of 25,000

Additional Credits:
Editor: Claudia Turner
Sound Engineer: Erich Netherton
Sound: Daniel Magnani, Michael J.Mateer
Music: Brian Turner
Special thanks to Soraia Callison

Please Note: Profits will be donated to the fight against AIDS.

Related Links

• Vineeta.org
• Voice of America
• The Westside Gazette
• WJZ-TV
• POZ.com

Customer Comments

• Reviewer: familyguy on 25-Feb-2008

  Stunning!
  
  What have we, as a society, been doing?
  Living Puritanical lies about sex and sexuality, misinforming our children and making another generation of diseased and dysfunctional people who are publicly prudish and privately perverted.
  
  Let's hope this movie let's parents and teachers see that we can talk honestly to our kids. They want to know. The question isn't are they ready. It's are we.
  
  Bravo!

• Reviewer: chrisdesouza.com on 26-Feb-2008

  What this movie fails to do is confirm our acceptance of immorality. So long as we lead a life of sin, AIDS will be there looking for a cure.
  
  We as adults have come to this in that we have to now take comfort from a 4 and a 6 year old to feel at ease discussing the madness we grown ups have spread far and wide.

• Reviewer: a liberal parent on 26-Feb-2008

  Though somewhat appreciative of the filmakers' intentions, I have serious misgivings about the implied message of this film i.e. that one should speak freely to 4-6 years olds about sex and sexual transmission of AIDS. I thought the director of CARE interviewed on the film took the most sensitive approach to the girls' questions about how HIV is transmitted - being sensitive to the girls' ages as well as the need to provide necessary information about sexual transmission. She wisely said that AIDS can enter your body through 'private parts'. Young children need to know to protect their private parts by not letting other people - and especially adults - touch them (touching their own private parts is of course fine and normal) until they are old enough to consent to this. In addition, they should be told not to ever touch syringes or needles. I genuinely do not see the wisdom in explaining much more about the transmission of HIV and agree with the NY Times reporter that many children could develop fears about sex with the kind of information these two young girls received (e.g. if they know sex without condoms can be deadly and that their parents have sex without condoms, it could lead them to think their parents could die). As any parent whose children who don't like the dark well knows, a young child's fears are often irrational. Parents have a duty to be cognizant of this, rather than blithely assuming young minds can readily absorb new and complex information about sex, death, prostitution and the host of other issues raised in the fight against HIV. Personally, the only clearly positive note about this film was that it emphasized to the girls the importance of actively helping and loving persons suffering with HIV. The rest I fear was a rather sensationalistic use by the filmakers of their own (formerly) innocent children. As the NYT put it, "But innocence ? being fleeting ? fled."

• Reviewer: anonymous on 26-Feb-2008

  i thought it was great especially introducing children to it the way they did

• Reviewer: reviewer on 29-Feb-2008

  I learned a lot from this movie . . . about me.
  
  First I struggled with, 'should these kids be seeing this.' Then 'should my kids see this.' To, 'should I be seeing this.'
  
  Then I realized the whole reaction was based on my inhibitions and taboos . . . and how those got programmed into me.
  
  No matter who you are and what you think, this will make you think about everything again and anew.
  
  In that sense, this may be one of the most important movies I've ever seen. Certainly the most thought-provoking.

• Reviewer: Pascale Robitaille on 05-Mar-2008

  How can you explain the prevention of AIDS with sex workers to kids? What is my everyday job exactly? When we got approached at the Toronto 2006 International AIDS Conference, we all kind of joked with this unusual offer and I was pushed by my team (hear here a sacrificial lamb) to answer this tricky question. So many things were going through my mind while I was being filmed. What is age appropriate (4 yrs old & 6 yrs old) informations about sex & AIDS? I had never been confronted to this dilemma before. And I was scared to answer honestly. Scared to say something that would offend my professional order (Sexology Association in Quebec-ASQ). Scared to loose my license to practice with adults! And yes, I thought itwas strange for parents to push their own kids this way. But looking to everybody?s answers, I feel that this video is great! Certainly not because of me, but for all the AIDS?s leaders appropriate answers! I can?t say enough how proud I am of my friend Caroline Salvail from Montreal. I just love her more every day I get to be around her!
  
  Please get informed about sex workers human's & workers' rights! www.chezstella.org

Additional Information

• Country: United States
• Language: English
• Format: NTSC
• Aspect Ratio: 4:3 (standard TV)
• Color: Color
• Sound: Dolby Digital