January 22, 2009

The faces of two speak loudly
for the suffering of millions

A filmmaker offers a portrait of two women living with AIDS in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, as they and their families share moments of pain, joy and humor in the struggle to survive.

Having accepted her new life as an AIDS patient, Danisile Mvula goes so far as to create nicknames to help her remember the array of pills she must take every day for the rest of her life.

In the United States, HIV/AIDS no longer dominates the front page of newspapers or the obituary columns. Thanks to antiretroviral drugs, it is now largely seen as a chronic illness rather than a death sentence.

But in other parts of the world, that’s not the case.

When Sarah Friedland accompanied her father, Gerald H. Friedland, M.D., professor of medicine and director of the Yale AIDS Program, on a research expedition to KwaZulu-Natal in 2004, she saw firsthand how AIDS was decimating the community, and she decided to make a documentary about it.

In her film Thing With No Name, shown January 7 at the Anlyan Center, Friedland, a graduate film student at Hunter College, takes us to a place where the lethal threat of AIDS is immediate and ever present.

The film begins with two women—Danisile Mvula and Ntombeleni Mlangeni—having already been diagnosed with AIDS. It follows them through their similar, yet dramatically different, experiences dealing with the physical and emotional toll the disease takes on them and on their families.

Mvula accepts her new life as a patient, going so far as to create nicknames to help her remember the array of pills she must take every day for the rest of her life.

Mlangeni has a harder time. When the illness renders her unable to walk, her sister-in-law carries her home from the hospital on her back. As Mlangeni’s condition worsens, so does her pain.

South Africa has the sixth highest prevalence of HIV in the world, with 18.8 percent of the population estimated to be infected. In KwaZulu-Natal, where orphans outnumber children with parents and funerals are a daily occurrence, one out of every six people is HIV positive.

As we come to know and care about the two women in Thing With No Name, these staggering numbers and the global toll AIDS continues to take, is made heartbreakingly human.

—Charles Gershman

Thing With No Name will be shown again on Feb. 5 at 5 p.m. in TAC Auditorium. Sarah Friedland will be there to discuss the film and answer audience questions after the screening. To view a clip from the film or for more information about Thing With No Name, go to www.thingwithnoname.org.

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