The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), in partnership with the BronzeLens Film Festival, Spelman College Women’s Center and the Black Women’s Health Imperative proudly present a screening tour of the groundbreaking HIV/AIDS documentary Wilhemina’s War throughout parts of the deep South, where HIV infection rates continue to spiral out of control.
The eye-opening film, which was produced and directed by AHF Grant Fund recipient June Cross, follows a Southern grandmother’s struggles to help her loved ones as they navigate the landscape of HIV care and services in South Carolina, a state that’s been very hostile to public health care, specifically Medicaid expansion.
“With statistics continuing to indicate that African American women constitute 65% of women diagnosed with HIV, and the nine states of the Deep South being where 71% of women diagnosed with HIV are living, it was important for us to share the powerful message of Wilhemina’s War, which continues to shed light on the struggles of HIV throughout the South, where failure to adopt Medicaid expansion and lack of access to healthcare is costing people their lives,” stated Imara Canady, AHF’s Regional Director of Communications and Community Engagement in AHF’s Southern Bureau.
“We thank our partners for joining AHF in increasing awareness in African American communities in key cities across the South.”
The film’s director June Cross and Dayshal Dicks—Wilhemina’s granddaughter—a young HIV-positive woman featured in
the film, will join HIV/AIDS experts on site to have post-screening dialogues with attendees.
The screening tour follows on the heels of the AHF-sponsored screenings of the film at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over 590,000 individuals in 35 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe.
To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare and Instagram: @aidshealthcare
