In one of the rare films that focuses solely on women of colour and the global crisis of HIV/AIDS, this powerful documentary follows eight activists, all HIV-positive, from the US and sub-Saharan Africa. They not only shaped grassroots groups like ACT UP in the US, but have also played essential roles in HIV prevention and treatment throughout sub-Saharan Africa. As women constitute more than half of all people living with HIV/AIDS-related illnesses, this film follows the lives and work of Katrina Haslip, mobilizer of inmates living with HIV/AIDS; Burundi-based Jeanne Gapiya, who became the first person in Burundi to publicly declare herself HIV-positive; Gina Brown, activist for women who contract HIV through intimate partner violence; Nigerian activist Morolake Odetoyinbo; Mary Bowman, a poet; New York activist Sonia Rastogi; and Côte D'Ivoire mother Rose Dossou. These women bring urgent solutions to end the global crisis and call out the institutionalized policies that have kept women in crisis throughout this epidemic. Heather Haynes
Silence Breakers program presented in partnership with OXFAM CANADA.