SAN ANTONIO –The San Antonio AIDS Foundation (SAAF) will host the first Texas community screening of “Desert Migration,” an award-winning documentary about the unique challenges faced by long-term survivors of HIV/AIDS, from 6:30-9:30 p.m., Thursday, June 23, at the Santikos Bijou Cinema Bistro at Wonderland of the Americas Mall, 4522 Fredericksburg Road. Tickets are $30 and are available at www.SanAntonioAIDS.org.
Proceeds benefit SAAF and the local screening is timed to coincide with the 35th anniversary of the first official AIDS diagnoses in the United States.
“Desert Migration” focuses on a group of gay men, all long-term HIV survivors, who sought refuge in Southern California’s Palm Springs. The film explores the physical, medical and emotional side effects of living with HIV – as well as the stigma that still exists in American society 35 years after AIDS was officially recognized as an epidemic in the United States and around the world.
The $30 ticket price includes a pre-film reception with light refreshments and, directly following the screening, an informal question-and-answer panel discussion with the “Desert Migration” director Daniel Cardone, SAAF CEO Cynthia Nelson, Dr. Barbara Saatkamp Taylor, a local HIV medical researcher and physician, as well as long-term survivors living in San Antonio.
The event is sponsored by Santikos Entertainment, Texas Public Radio and the Crockett Hotel.
“The majority of people living with HIV in Bexar County are 45 or older, so the opportunity for the San Antonio AIDS Foundation to be the first to present this film in our community is truly significant,” Nelson said. “We are honored to contribute to the emerging national conversation about aging with HIV.” She cited the most recent statistics from the City of San Antonio’s Metropolitan Health District, which reports that in 2014, 52 percent of people living with HIV were age 45 and older. Eighty-five percent of people living with HIV in Bexar County were men.
Nelson also noted that SAAF timed the film’s presentation to coincide with the observance of the official 35th anniversary of the first AIDS diagnoses in the U.S.
“June 5, 1981 marks the 35th anniversary of when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officially recognized the first AIDS cases in the United States. Historically, that date is regarded as the beginning of what became known as the AIDS epidemic,” she said. “And while all these years later, science has made incredible strides in treating the disease and prolonging the lives of people with HIV, there is still no cure. We timed this film screening as close as possible to the actual anniversary date to help remind the public that HIV/AIDS remains a serious health issue in our country and around the world.”
In the Washington, D.C. publication Metro Weekly, Cardone, who was diagnosed with HIV in 1995, told writer John Riley that “he’s often shocked by the sheer ignorance surrounding HIV in mainstream society — even among members of the LGBT community, who still speak of HIV as if it were the height of the AIDS epidemic in the ’80s and early ’90s.”
Cardone believes that HIV/AIDS carries a stigma unlike other major diseases. “I think there’s still this moral outrage and stigma associated with it that doesn’t go to any other disease,” Cardone said in the interview. “People think it’s a scandalous, dark thing that you did that caused you to become positive, so, therefore, you are a bad person.”
With this documentary, Cardone hopes to shed light on the topic and encourage open discussion.
“I think the takeaway from the movie, or what I hope people will get from it, is that life goes on. Life perseveres. We find a way,” he said. “All of these people are still getting on, even if they’re depressed one day, or their back is covered in sores, or they’re having side effects from the medication. They’re still getting up every day. They’re still getting on with their lives.”
ABOUT “DESERT MIGRATION”
Produced by Marc Smolowitz and directed by Cardone, in association with The HIV Story Project, the film, focuses on 13 gay men living long-term with HIV who sought out an oasis in Southern California's Palm Springs where their homosexuality and health condition are not just tolerated, but understood. They represent a large number of people who migrated to the desert community burdened with memories of watching their friends die, all believing that a similar fate would befall them.
Over the course of a single on-screen ‘day,’ the film observes and records a group of men as they work, eat, sleep, love, recuperate and grieve. By sharing their stories, “Desert Migration” reflects on subjects that relate to all of us, whether we are HIV positive or negative, young or old: How do we approach our own aging, and the notion of mortality? What gives us the will to create, to achieve, and even to live at all, as our bodies and minds deteriorate?
“Desert Migration” has been screened as an “official selection” at many prestigious film festivals, including the Outfest Los Angeles LGBT Film Festival, the Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival, the Adelaide Film Festival and NewFest, New York’s LGBT Film Festival. The SAAF screening is the first community presentation for the general public in Texas.
Promotional materials for the film state that more than half the people living with HIV in the United States are over 50 years of age: “Although their lives were saved by antiretroviral therapies, they are dealing with a new barrage of problems as their aging bodies struggle to maintain the upper hand against the virus, accompanied by many side effects of the treatment itself: insomnia, depression, neuropathy, bone degeneration, kidney failure, cognitive disorders, suicidal ideation . . . Many also struggle with symptoms of post-traumatic stress, having lived through a period of decimation and debilitation that remains largely unacknowledged.”
For more information on the film, visit the official website at http://desertmigrationmovie.com.
ABOUT SAAF
Founded in 1986, the San Antonio AIDS Foundation (SAAF, /saf/) commemorates 30 years of service in 2016. It is the oldest and largest HIV/AIDS service organization in Bexar County. It has a dual mission: to provide compassionate medical care and social services to people with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and to help prevent the spread of HIV through education, counseling and testing. SAAF’s headquarters and residential services are located at 818 E. Grayson St. and the testing and education offices are at 333 S. Hackberry St. For more information, visit www.SanAntonioAIDS.orgor call Ken Slavin, vice president of communications, at 225-4715, ext. 141.
