Never Forget

This Shorts Program is Sponsored by Gilead Sciences, Inc.

DOCUMENTARY & NARRATIVE SHORTS ABOUT COMMUNITY, HIV/AIDS AND LIVING WITH HIV

Plenum (Directed by Charlene A. Carruthers, Documentary/Narrative, U.S.) – A fascinating and moving hybrid reconstruction of the 1995 Black Nations/Queer Nations Conference, “Plenum” follows the experience of siblings Ajani & Tracy, as they make their way from Chicago to NYC. While Tracy is worried that Ajani’s recent HIV positive diagnosis will drive him into isolation, Ajani fear the consequences of telling their father as he enters a new community & phase of life. Don’t miss the credits!

Ripple (Directed by Jacob Norris, Narrative Drama, U.S.) – In the early 1980s, during the height of the AIDS epidemic, Katherine, a compassionate palliative nurse, works tirelessly to care for patients suffering from the devastating disease. Meanwhile, her only son, Daniel, leaves home for the summer to work as a camp counselor, unaware of the hateful societal norms that will soon threaten his own happiness.

Southern Son Shine (Directed by Kevin Dapree Anderson, Documentary, U.S.) – Join us on a joyful, reflective, and loving visit with a group of Black gay men living with HIV, as we learn about their lives through Southern storytelling, art & ancestral memory. Rooted in the griot tradition, the film reframes the South as a place of survival, softness, and becoming, where faith, masculinity, queerness & healing intersect.

Welcome to the Tool Shed (Directed by Daniel Talbott & Andrew Klaus-Vineyard, Documentary, U.S.) – The documentary takes an in depth, searing dive into the colorful community of queer senior citizens who congregate at the Tool Shed, a long-standing gay bar and sanctuary for queer people in Palm Springs, California, where many of its denizens are the oldest survivors of the AIDS epidemic.