“In every city, including the capital of the
most
powerful country in the world, there is another city, a city of
forgotten
people and unspeakable shame.”
“THE OTHER
CITY”
A NEW FILM
ABOUT HIV/AIDS EPIDEMIC IN WASHINGTON, D.C.
WORLD PREMIERE AT
NINTH ANNUAL
TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL
APRIL 26
Visit or Participate at official Facebook Youtube Twitter
website
New York, NY (April 1, 2010) –
Washington, D.C. has a higher rate of HIV/AIDS
infection
than several countries in Africa. The figures are startling.
At least 3 percent of the capital city's
population is
HIV-positive
— far surpassing
the 1
percent threshold that constitutes a "generalized and severe"
epidemic.[1]
The Other City, a new film by director Susan Koch, written by
Pulitzer
Prize winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, deals with this
controversial topic
and will have its world premiere at the Ninth Annual Tribeca Film
Festival on
April 26th.
Produced by entrepreneur and philanthropist
Sheila C.
Johnson, The Other City spotlights personal stories of those that
live
in the shadow of the Capitol but remain virtually invisible to the
lawmakers
and politicians who work there. Tackling issues of homelessness, drug
addiction, access services and the lingering social stigma accompanied
by a
diagnosis of HIV or AIDS, The Other City illustrates indelibly
the steep
cost we pay – in the loss of countless lives because of denial and
ignorance.
“HIV/AIDS intersects and reflects many of the
injustices and inequities that plague our capital and our nation – from
poverty
to race and homophobia, to health care, incarceration rates and
education,”
says film director Susan Koch. I hope this film will not only spark
much
needed dialogue about AIDS in America, but also make us aware of ‘the
other
city’ that is part of every large city in America.”
The
Other City
features a
cross-section
of powerful personal stories of individuals representing demographic
groups
impacted and affected by HIV/AIDS, and features commentary by
Pulitzer prize winning columnist at the Washington Post, Frank
Rich,
columnist for the New York Times, U.S. Congresswoman Eleanor
Holmes
Norton (D-DC), David Cantania, Chairman DC Health Committee, Kevin
Frost, CEO
amfar, author and HIV/AIDS activists Larry Kramer, Shannon Hader,
Director of
DC HIV/AIDS Administration for the DC Department of Health.
“When I first came to D.C. in 2003 as a
reporting
intern at The Washington Post, I was a bit starry-eyed,” says
film
writer Jose Antonio Vargas. “But in my first few months living in the
city — riding the bus across town, walking around the neighborhoods — I
grew
to know a whole other Washington, a predominantly black city that does
not have
a vote in Congress, a city with a sizable gay population and a growing
Latino
community. I discovered a disease that decade after decade has kept on
spreading
within the city walls, just a few steps from the White House. With this
film, I
feel it is time to re-start the conversation about a devastating
epidemic that
is not going away. To me, 'The Other City' is America's underclass as
told through a virus."
More than 1 million people in the U.S. are
living with
the HIV or AIDS. On average, someone in the U.S. is infected with HIV
every nine and a half minutes. And while Washington has the highest
HIV/AIDS rate in the country, other American cities are seeing
epidemic-like
figures. Nationally, the leading cause of death for black women ages 25
to 34 is AIDS. In New York City,
1 in 8 injection-drug users and 1 in 10 men who
have
sex with men are HIV-positive
.
"We have documented
those raw, personal stories, and given viewers unprecedented access to
those
living on the front lines of the AIDS epidemic,” says producer Sheila C.
Johnson. “By showing the ‘two Washingtons’ — one that is affluent and
powerful, the other that is overwhelmingly poor and powerless – we
also
cast a spotlight on several large cities across America that are home to
a
‘shadow’ population, dealing with epidemic-like numbers of people with
HIV/AIDS.”
For more information about The
Other
City, visit
For more information about
the Tribeca Film
Festival and for screening schedules for The Other City, visit
ABOUT THE
FILMMAKERS
Susan Koch
(Director)
An Emmy- and
Peabody-winning filmmaker, directs and produces documentaries and
non-fiction
programming for worldwide distribution. Her feature documentary, Kicking
It,
about homeless soccer players who compete in an international
tournament,
premiered at the 2008 Sundance and Tribeca Film Festivals, was released
theatrically and on DVD. It was broadcast on ESPN. Koch codirected and
produced
Mario's Story, about a young Latino, Mario Rocha, who was
convicted of
murder and sentenced to life in prison on the basis of one eyewitness
and no
physical evidence. Mario's Story received the Audience Award for
Best
Documentary Feature at the Los Angeles Film Festival and was broadcast
on
Showtime in 2009. Koch received a prestigious Soros Justice Media
Fellowship
for her work with this film. Koch directed the critically-acclaimed
documentary, City at Peace, featured at film festivals throughout
the
world and broadcast on HBO. Her work has appeared on ABC, NBC, PBS, HBO,
Showtime, MTV, ESPN, The Discovery Channel, National Geographic, Turner
Broadcasting, American Movie Classics, The Learning Channel and the
Travel
Channel.
Jose
Antonio Vargas (Co-Producer and Writer)
A multimedia
journalist.
He's the Technology & Innovations Editor at The Huffington Post,
where he oversees the Technology and College sections, and was
previously a
feature writer and national political reporter for The Washington
Post,
where he covered technology culture, HIV/AIDS in Washington, D.C. and
the 2008
presidential campaign, among other topics. He won a Pulitzer Prize as a
part of
a team that covered the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech. The media's
evolution
— and the breaking down of barriers between print and broadcast
journalism —
has guided his nearly 12-year reporting career. He's written for daily
newspapers (Philadelphia Daily News, San Francisco Chronicle)
and
national magazines (New York and Rolling Stone). He's also
appeared on several television broadcasts, including CNN, MSNBC, and PBS
NewsHour. He serves on the advisory board of the Knight Batten Award for
Innovations in Journalism, housed at American University in D.C., and
he's a
very proud graduate of Mountain View High School and San Francisco State
University. He currently lives in New York City.
Sheila C.
Johnson (Producer)
An
entrepreneur and philanthropist whose accomplishments spans the areas of
hospitality, sports, TV/film, the arts, education and humanitarian
causes. She
is CEO of Salamander Hospitality, LLC, a company she founded in 2005,
overseeing a growing portfolio of luxury properties, including Woodlands
Inn,
in Summerville, SC; Innisbrook, a 72-hole Golf & Resort Spa in
Innisbrook,
FL; and the much anticipated Salamander Resort & Spa, currently
being
constructed in Middleburg, VA. As President and Managing Partner of the
WNBA's
Washington Mystics, and a partner in Lincoln Holdings, LLC, Johnson is
the
first African American woman to have a stake in three professional
sports teams,
including the Washington Wizards (NBA) and the Washington Capitals
(NHL). She
is also a TV pioneer, having been a founder partner of BET (Black
Entertainment
Television) and the creator of the award-winning program Teen Summit.
Currently, Johnson is producing films with humanitarian messages,
including Kicking
It, A Powerful Noise and She Is the Matador. In 2006,
Johnson
was named global ambassador for CARE, a leading aid organization
fighting
global poverty by empowering women. She is a member of the Council on
Foreign
Relations and serves as Chair of the Board of Governors of Parsons The
New
School for Design in New York. An accomplished violinist and a fervent
supporter of the arts and education, Johnson was appointed by President
Obama
to the President's Committee of the Arts and the Humanities, and she
sits on
the boards of Americans for the Arts, the Jackie Robinson Foundation,
the Tiger
Woods Foundation, the University of Virginia Curry School of Education,
Howard
University and the University of Illinois Foundation.
About The Tribeca
Film
Festival
Robert
De Niro,
Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff founded the Tribeca Film Festival in
2001
following the attacks on the World Trade Center to spur the economic and
cultural revitalization of the lower Manhattan district through an
annual
celebration of film, music and culture.
The
Festival’s
mission is to help filmmakers reach the broadest possible audience,
enable the
international film community and general public to experience the power
of
cinema and promote New York City as a major filmmaking center. Tribeca
Film Festival is well known for being a diverse international film
festival
that supports emerging and established directors.
The
Tribeca
Festival has screened over 1100 films from over 80 countries since its
first
festival in 2002. Since its founding, it has attracted an international
audience of more than 2.3 million attendees and has generated an
estimated $600
million in economic activity for New York City
[1] As
determined by the United Nations Joint Program on
HIV/AIDS and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
