A classic NZAF safe sex poster Three decades of the New Zealand AIDS Foundation’s response to HIV have been collated in three films which will be released to mark its 30th anniversary next month. Award-winning gay director David Herkt has turned archived film and video footage, photography and safe sex campaign materials into three short digital videos, each chronicling a ten year period, called The 30 Project. The New Zealand AIDS Foundation (NZAF) says they provide the viewer with a visceral insight into New Zealand’s response to the AIDS epidemic. “The 30 Project is not just a memorial, but also a resource for the future,” it says. “It will reconnect new generations with the real faces and stories of New Zealanders who have responded to the HIV/AIDS epidemic over three decades and in some cases given the ultimate contribution – their lives. “The 30 Project will acknowledge the people that paved the way, helping to build NZAF into one of the most effective national HIV prevention organisations in the world.” NZAF Executive Director Shaun Robinson says connecting with the past can help to re-energize the New Zealand community in the fight against HIV/AIDS today. “New Zealand has done many things right in its response to HIV and we have much to be thankful for,” Robinson says. “Thirty years of human rights and law reform around homosexuality mean that HIV and sex can be talked about openly and safe sex can be freely promoted. As a result 80 per cent of gay and bisexual men use condoms for casual sex and this has kept HIV at very low levels.” Robinson says the story of the New Zealand AIDS Foundation and the response to HIV /AIDS is made up hundreds of people’s contributions. “It is a community that responded to the epidemic and that response is kept strong by remembering the lessons of the past as well as engaging with the world as it is today.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Wednesday, 24th June 2015 - 5:27pm