AIDS TV: Screening of HIV/AIDS Archives

A meeting with Alexandra Juhasz – a distinguished scholar and artist who, for over four decades, has brought together film, education and social activism around HIV/AIDS.

This event offers a conversation about HIV that moves beyond familiar frameworks. It explores how images and media shape whose voices are heard, who is believed, and which stories are considered important. It asks how knowledge can empower rather than stigmatize.

Associated with the legendary ACT UP New York movement, Juhasz has long demonstrated that culture has a tangible impact on public health and human rights. She is the creator of the AIDS TV project, through which she has documented queer video practices and grassroots archives related to the epidemic. Her work restores visibility to those whose experiences have too often been marginalized.

The programme features three films – short, intense works grounded in archival materials and collaboration with their protagonists:

▪️ “I Want to Leave a Legacy: The Video/Activism of Juanita Mohammed Szczepanski” (2023) – a portrait of a pioneering AIDS activist who used independent media to create space for the voices of Black communities and LGBT+ people.

▪️ “Prostitutes, Risk and AIDS” (1988) – an archival piece showing how law and media narratives shaped the lives of sex workers during the epidemic.

▪️ “DiAna’s Hair Ego REMIX” (2017) – a story of AIDS education taking place in a hair salon in South Carolina; an example of how knowledge emerges through relationships and everyday spaces.

The conversation will be moderated by Agata Dziuban – a sociologist and co-author of the books “HIVstorie. Żywe polityki HIV/AIDS w Polsce” and “We Are Infecting People with Activism”.

This is an invitation to anyone who wishes to help build a conscious and responsible society – regardless of age or experience – grounded in knowledge, empathy and the courage to engage with issues that shape our social reality. It is about better understanding the mechanisms of exclusion and how they can be challenged.

MEETING IN POLISH (in Warsaw)

Kinoteka 16.04, 18:00 BILETY/TICKETS