http://www.pbs.org/previews/closerwalk/
Critically Acclaimed Film on Global AIDS Features Narration by Glenn Close and Will Smith -
One of the best documentaries ever produced about the global HIV epidemic will air tonight on PBS. After watching the documentary on HIV in the Black community, "A closer walk" will serve to provide the look of HIV on a macrocosmic level. Check the link and watch...learn....and React!
A CLOSER WALK, Oscar nominee Robert Bilheimer's film about the global AIDS epidemic, airs on PBS Thursday, August 31, 2006, 9:00-10:30 pm ET, marking the documentary's U.S. television debut.
Narrated by Glenn Close and Will Smith, A CLOSER WALK features interviews with the Dalai Lama, Bono and Kofi Annan, with musical contributions by Annie Lennox, the Neville Brothers, Eric Clapton and Sade.
Filmed on four continents over a period of three years, A CLOSER WALK depicts the harsh realities of global AIDS, and explores the intricate relationship between health, dignity and human rights.
"This is a story about the way the world is" says Close in the opening line of the program's narration. The film's rendering of the world through the prism of AIDS takes the viewer to locations in the United States, Ukraine, Uganda, South Africa, India and Haiti, and offers deeply personal stories of children, women and men around the world affected by the disease. Those caring or advocating for people living with AIDS are featured prominently in the film as well. They include Dr. Paul Farmer of Partners in Health, India's Dr. Suniti Solomon and Prof. Jeffrey Sachs of the Earth Institute at Columbia University.
Speaking of his approach to the film and its complex subject matter, director Bilheimer said, "When I interviewed [UNAIDS Executive Director] Peter Piot early on, I was really struck by his insight that 'AIDS is part of the human condition,' and that 'AIDS exists because we exist.' When Peter said that, I knew that A CLOSER WALK should indeed be a film about the way the world is, and that my colleagues and I would need to be in and of the world for a period of time to truly understand what AIDS is doing to us all."
The film has received international critical acclaim. Writing for the Gannett News Service, chief film critic Jack Garner gave A CLOSER WALK his highest rating, calling it a "beautifully told story of suffering that inspires hope and action." In South Africa, reviewing the film prior to its national airing on South African television, Claire Keaton of the Sunday Times called the film "unforgettable." In New Delhi, following the film's India premiere, Rajeshwari Sharma of the Economic Times said that A CLOSER WALK is "an absolutely brilliant account of the deadliest plague humankind has ever known."
Originally conceived in 1996 with the late Jonathan Mann - widely regarded as the architect of the global response to AIDS - A CLOSER WALK took three years to develop, three years to make and is now in its third year of a distribution campaign.
"The whole point," says Bilheimer, "was to level the playing field in terms of what we all - as a human family - understand about AIDS. Making a film that would somehow engage everyone on this issue was obviously a challenge on the creative side. But the equal challenge, on the distribution side, was to put the movie in front of, literally, hundreds of millions of people. We are about to achieve that."
Since its premiere at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2003, A CLOSER WALK has been broadcast nationally on South African television (SABC 1) and Canadian television (CBC). Agreements to air the film in China and India on World AIDS Day, December 1, 2006, are being finalized.
Featured at the Tribeca Film Festival, the film has also premiered at Lincoln Center in New York City, in Kansas City and Kiev, and in New Delhi, Johanesburg, Durban, Bangkok and Phnom Penh. It has been shown at hundreds of schools and college campuses around the world, and been used as a primary education and awareness tool by NGOs, corporations and other organizations, including various UN Agencies such as UNICEF, UNDP and UNODC, the U.S. Department of State, AmfAR, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundations and prominent AIDS advocacy and education campaigns, including The One Campaign and Grassroot Soccer. Oprah Winfrey has featured excerpts from A CLOSER
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