Aria from Canadian documentary opera on HIV & AIDS
Audio File:
This is an audio clip taken from the 2009 documentary opera film by Canadian director John Greyson entitled Fig Trees about AIDS activists Tim McCaskell in Toronto, Canada, and Zackie Achmat in Capetown, South Africa. The film is a blend of fantasy, surrealism, music, poetry, news footage, etc.!!
Brief description of what is happening in the audio clip:
Zackie Achmat (played by Van Abrahams) is unable to attend the 2002 Barcelona International AIDS conference because he is too weak from not taking his HIV medication. He sends his speech by video instead. In the movie, the speech is sampled and transformed into an aria about Zackie's treatment strike.
Find out more about this extremely creative film here.
Find out more about Zackie Achmat and his treatment strike here.
(audio taken from the film's website: http://www.yorku.ca/greyzone/figtrees/videos.html)
