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In the early hours of Thursday morning, “photographic storyteller” Sydelle Willow Smith and her Sunshine Cinema team got up before the sun and set off on an epic journey from Cape Town with their solar-powered mobile cinema.
Describing themselves as a “mobile media initiative”, they travelled first to Qunu village in the Eastern Cape.
From there, they drove north-east towards the sea and Durban ahead of the International Aids Conference. They will host a series of free film screenings and theatre performances throughout the conference.
Sunshine Cinema started in 2013. It wanted to amplify grassroots voices in South Africa, mainly by taking movies across a range of subjects to the people and hosting discussions afterwards.
To align with the Aids conference, they will be screening a film called Nothing Without Us: The Women Who Will End Aids, a documentary about women at the forefront of the global fight against HIV and Aids.
Resorting to email when bad reception on the road hit the travelling cinema, Smith adds:
“The screenings will also include a series of short films, produced by Makhulu for IAS Youth Voices, an advocacy initiative of the International Aids Society in partnership with the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation and the Children’s Foundation.
“The films provide perspectives of youths from South Africa, Zambia and Tanzania facing the challenges of access to care and social stigmas.”
Setting up screenings in schools, community centres and public spaces, Sunshine Cinema unpacks the SunBox, a suitcase-sized, solar-powered projector that can allow up to 150 members of a community to watch the film.
Along with experts and caregivers, Sunshine Cinema facilitates conversations, and it celebrates local stories, and educates and connects people.
The Umlazi and KwaMashu screenings are backed by the Open Society Foundation and aimed at high school students.
Theatre performances from local group Yamanje are part of a Theatre4Youth programme at Assitej SA. The performances focus on activism and the importance of speaking out about issues affecting communities.
Central to their Aids work, Smith says, is the youth, and tackling the many stigmas still attached to HIV and Aids.
Sunshine Cinema meets young people who feel judged by older nurses and doctors at the clinics where they get their treatment. They want more support systems that focus on being youth-friendly.
Other young people, she says, struggle to find employment because of their HIV status.
She says HIV-positive young South Africans most want to share the message that the disease is not a monster, and that you can live a healthy, positive life if you stick to your treatment.
