REAL REALITY TV	By Brent Skinner
Addressing Africa’s AIDS Pandemic

“I cannot place blame on this part of Africa,” says Susan Walker, associate professor of journalism at Boston University’s College of Communication.

It’s tough to blame Africa’s AIDS crisis on Sinethemba Shelembe—“Sine,” for short—the 15-year-old girl that Walker and her colleague, Geoffrey Poister, assistant professor of television at the same school, accompanied for two weeks this past August in the Pholela District of South Africa. AIDS has orphaned Sine, who did not learn of her mother’s death until many months after it occurred. South Africa has the highest rate of AIDS infection in Africa. Pholela, the unofficial epicenter of the AIDS pandemic, has the highest AIDS rate of any district in KwaZulu Natal Province, the province with the highest AIDS rate in all of South Africa.

BU professors Susan Walker and Geoff Poister interviewing health officials about skyrocketing HIV infection rates among young women
American and South African teens hanging out during the shooting of the documentary  A Tale of Two Teens	BU professor Susan Walker in the KwaZulu Natal province of South Africa

Walker and Poister want A TALE OF TWO TEENS, the working title for their documentary about the AIDS crisis in South Africa, to reach a new audience. “We need to make a documentary that teenagers will watch,” says Poister. “What we’re trying to do is make the subject of AIDS something that teenagers would be interested in exploring.” Poister, a contributor to the PBS series “Nova” is also the producer of the Classic-Telly Award-winning THE SPIRIT OF HIROSHIMA. Recently broadcast on PBS, the film has been featured in international documentary festivals throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Concerning TWO TEENS Poister says, “I’m not an AIDS activist but, if any of my work leads to someone being enlightened, then I see that as a good thing.”

“I am hoping,” says Walker, “that American and South African teens will see this, learn from it, want to get tested, want to know more, and want to have a voice. Preventing the spread of this disease is what you really want to do.” The subject matter strikes at home for Walker, mother of two teenage girls. A veteran of the television news industry and founder of the video production company Tecknow, Walker has been a news writer and news producer for newscasts in Boston and Philadelphia. Throughout her career, she has undertaken a number of investigative reporting projects. In the early 1980s, Walker produced an award-winning series, “Men Who Rape,” which aired on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

AIDS is ravaging Africa. “Every factor that you look at,” says Poister, “seems to be contributing to the pandemic.” According to the Reproductive Health Research Unit of South Africa’s University of the Witwatersrand, most young South Africans living with HIV or AIDS are female. Females with AIDS comprise 77 percent of South Africa’s infected population. The country has one of the highest abuse rates in the world. Intergenerational sex is rampant. Tribal cultures encourage people to have four or five sexual partners. Poverty is the common denominator, and villagers have little access to healthcare.

BU professor Susan Walker in South Africa where more people are dying of AIDS than anywhere else.

A TALE OF TWO TEENS presents the story of the AIDS epidemic by exploring two weeks in the lives of Sine and her American counterpart, Margaret Quigley, a teenager from the Boston area. “Margaret and Sine don’t have AIDS,” says Walker, “but South African girls are actually orphaned by AIDS. So there is an impact. To compare the two girls’ lifestyles, their daily responsibilities, and their access to healthcare is a way to look at the why.”

A church group brought Margaret to Pholela to visit Sine in August. The two girls became fast friends, providing a palatable storyline to fuel discussion of a sensitive topic. “I was really shocked to learn some of the reasons young women seem to be infected at such horrific rates there,” says Walker. “You can’t not tell that story. Young women in these villages are not empowered. They’re not standing up. They’re not requesting medical help. They’re not reporting abuse or getting tested. They’re not questioning some of the practices that are leading to this. They’re just trying to get by. There are some very huge issues that have to do with girls not having a voice in these villages.”

In A TALE OF TWO TEENS Walker and Poister also capture the resilience of South African spirituality and how the disease tests South Africans’ faith. M. Gideon Khabela, the minister who hosted Walker and Poister during the two professors’ visit, buried 400 people last year but only married 10. “I think they are an extremely spiritual people,” says Walker. “They are incredibly joyous, yet in absolute shame and shock about what is happening.”

“What we don’t want to do,” says Poister, “is make a dismal documentary that says, ‘Here’s this terrible thing, and look at how awful it is,’ We do want to give people a sense that there’s something they can do.”

The documentary is accessible and meaningful for young people. Margaret, for instance, is an ardent fan of Dave Matthews, a South African native. She decided to share a CD of the artist’s work with Sine, who ended up also liking Matthews’ music. The camaraderie Sine and Margaret share on screen is strong and genuine.

Yet the story will get nowhere without an outlet that will broadcast the finished product. “Anybody who makes documentaries for exhibition,” says Poister, “unless they [sic] are Michael Moore or Ken Burns, needs to be prepared. Nobody wants to commit to broadcasting a film until they [sic] see it.”

“If we had the clear backing of a celebrity on this, for instance,” says Walker, “an outlet like VH-1 would be more interested in hearing about it.”

Walker and Poister must surmount another obstacle as well. It has little to do with the AIDS pandemic but everything to do with communicating the disease’s impacts to the audience they have targeted. This documentary project requires financial resources, the pursuit of which can be a daunting and time-consuming endeavor. Right now, Walker and Poister are soliciting support from a number of foundations, but variables promise to complicate the process. “We had a short time window,” Poister says. “I have faith that someone will fund this. What I worry about is whether we’ll get the funding in time.”

Walker and Poister want to produce and distribute a newsmagazine segment of their documentary in time to generate buzz for World AIDS Day, which is on December 1st. The exposure, they hope, will generate funding sources and woo potential broadcasting outlets.

“You could make a documentary about AIDS in Africa and easily air it on PBS. That, to me, would be preaching to the converted,” says Walker. “We want to go after teenagers with a reality show about a really horrifying reality that they should know about.”

For further information on A TALE OF TWO TEENS, please contact producer Susan Walker at suwalker@bu.edu