Health and Social Justice Documentary Films

Exploring the Impact of HIV on Women

HOME BE NICE TO SEX WORKERS EMPOWERING THE YARD LIVING POSITIVE PASA LA VOZ THE TALK Calendar of Events Contact Us

Why Women & HIV?

Over two and a half decades have passed since the first diagnosis of AIDS in America and over the years, women have emerged as the changing face of AIDS. Today the proportion of HIV and AIDS cases among women has more than tripled from 7 percent in 1985 to an alarming 30 percent in 2005. HIV has hit the African-American and Hispanic communities particularly hard. Women in these communities account for over 78 percent of all female AIDS cases in the U.S. Read more...

The Class

Documentary for Health & Social Justice is an interdisciplinary course offered at San Francisco State University that provides students the unique opportunity to work in partnership with community-based organizations and create short documentary films to educate and advocate for change on a health and social justice issue of choice.

Our goal is to provide students—from Cinema; Health Education; Sociology; Urban, Ethnic, and Women's Studies and other departments—an accessible, challenging and supportive practice-based environment in which to gain the research and production skills to create documentaries that:

•   Raise awareness around health and social justice issues,
•   Increase visibility of marginalized populations,
•   Advance dialogue toward solutions,
•   Highlight initiatives that are making a difference, and
•   Mobilize people to action.

Ultimately, success is measured by the extent to which residents, practitioners, advocates and other stakeholders can use these films as tools to educate, organize and advocate for health equity and social justice.

Learn more about the class and apply for next semester.

The Partnership

In 2007, San Francisco State University Health Equity Initiative fostered an innovative partnership with the National AIDS Fund and the SFSU Health Education and Cinema Departments to create a series of student films that address the impact of HIV on women in the United States.

Through this partnership, students had the unique opportunity to spend two semesters working in collaboration with five National AIDS Fund grantee organizations.

The Films

The result is a series of 15-minute documentary films that address the impact of HIV on women and explore how five communities across the nation are making a difference.

BE NICE TO SEX WORKERS documents the stories of a diverse group of street-based sex workers in Washington D.C., and explores the systemic barriers they face while illuminating their personal triumphs.
Set in Oklahoma where more women are incarcerated per capita than any where else in the country EMPOWERING THE YARD looks at HIV prevention from the perspective of five incarcerated women who are using peer education to empower themselves, their families, and their communities.
LIVING POSITIVE is told through the words and stories of five women in New Orleans who share the challenges and triumphs of living with HIV.
Set in a trans-border community, PASA LA VOZ (SPREAD THE WORD) explores how Mexican and Mexican-American women work in solidarity to reduce the spread of HIV through a unique peer education program entitled Pasa La Voz: Mujer a Mujer.
Did your parents talk to you about sex? THE TALK is based on a series of workshops run by Mothers' Voices, a non-profit organization in Miami dedicated to encouraging parents to be their children's sexual health educators

Watch: BEHIND THE SCENES

Meet the students behind the films; learn why the National AIDS Fund and Health Equity Initiative engaged in this community-campus partnership; and hear from the SFSU Health Education and Cinema Depts. about the intricacies and benefits of this interdisciplinary Documentary for Health & Social Justice class.

Minnesota State Colleges and Universities