David Jobling
UNDETECTABLE | Review
January 14th 2009 23:43
UNDETECTABLE
Produced/Directed/Camera Jay Corcoran
Editor George O'Donnell
Original Music Scott Killian
USA, 2001, 57min
Here is a documentary that follows a group of people living with HIV over a period of years and focuses on their individual relationships with their medication. No single documentary is going to cover every possible base, but UNDETECTABLE certainly provides some rarely ingested insights. It offers a balanced representation of people in the USA living with HIV as at Y2K.
A couple of gay men in a serodiscordant relationship (one is HIV and one is HIV-), a woman in a serodiscordant relationship, a married couple who are both living with the virus (seroconcordant relationship), a profoundly disabled South American woman in a seroconcordant relationship who has a young son who was born with HIV, an indigenous single bisexual man, a woman co-infected with HCV & HIV; all part of the massive melting pot called America, the land of the free. They clearly come from diverse backgrounds and HIV is the only commonality between them.
From an Australian perspective there are many similarities between the social conditions and sociological situations of people with HIV and some very strong differences.
The film-maker never probes so intimately into the lives of the subjects that there are uncomfortable scenes resting close to exploitation but verite scenes in the doctors' rooms do capture hart-wrenching moments of vulnerability. The camera never seems to impose. Over all it remains very focused on the people dealing ith medications, doctors, home life, hopes, fears and viral load. It does not worry itself or its subjects with overt or cumbersome lighting effects; much of the footage is taken on-the-move.
The direct-to-camera interviews include anecdotal information about the HIV-drugs by the people taking them, this provides rare insights into dealing with copious amounts of unexpected faeces in public places, plus other horrible side-effects. However it remains problematic that these suppositions and anecdotes are not supported with adequate in-depth or even cursory facts.
Somewhat frustratingly, director Jay Corcoran employs captions of statistics such as how many deaths from AIDS have occurred in the USA, how many people are infected per year, but never displays the types of drugs available or describes what they actually do.
Before seeing the film one may need to brush up on what is Crixivan or what is a reverse transcriptase inhibitor, protease inhibitor or even what is a viral load?
It tends to trade on emotive issues of who dies and who lives by the end of the period of documentary research, which doesn't provide much scientific educational material and even as it gives an anthropological insight ultimately one is left wondering who the audience is and what are the aims and objectives of the film - there is a very American morality evident.
It is a curious documentary, rather than a bad one, because any group of people dealing with treatments for an as yet incurable disease are going to encounter side-effects, strains, fears, disappointments, relationship breakdowns and a gamut of other obstacles. The documentary illuminates this quite well without really offering a macroscopic social view. One never discovers how these subjects fit in their community their greater community or social interactions remain unexplored.
It is important to create a record of time and place, especially when dealing with a subject as mysterious and complex as living with HIV, but I fear this documentary is not the wake-up call required to assist an apathetic and distracted public to take heed of anything more than Safe Sex. It is worth viewing if you are involved in health or social service delivery to people living with HIV as a discussion starter, but I would not advise newly diagnosed HIV people to view it.
If you live with it, you do not need to see it on the screen for an hour and you would get much much more support and information in a social-support group. It is good to know this film exists and I do think it deserves to be seen.
You can view more information at Wringing Hands Productions
David P. Jobling
Produced/Directed/Camera Jay Corcoran
Editor George O'Donnell
Original Music Scott Killian
USA, 2001, 57min
Here is a documentary that follows a group of people living with HIV over a period of years and focuses on their individual relationships with their medication. No single documentary is going to cover every possible base, but UNDETECTABLE certainly provides some rarely ingested insights. It offers a balanced representation of people in the USA living with HIV as at Y2K.
A couple of gay men in a serodiscordant relationship (one is HIV and one is HIV-), a woman in a serodiscordant relationship, a married couple who are both living with the virus (seroconcordant relationship), a profoundly disabled South American woman in a seroconcordant relationship who has a young son who was born with HIV, an indigenous single bisexual man, a woman co-infected with HCV & HIV; all part of the massive melting pot called America, the land of the free. They clearly come from diverse backgrounds and HIV is the only commonality between them.
From an Australian perspective there are many similarities between the social conditions and sociological situations of people with HIV and some very strong differences.
The film-maker never probes so intimately into the lives of the subjects that there are uncomfortable scenes resting close to exploitation but verite scenes in the doctors' rooms do capture hart-wrenching moments of vulnerability. The camera never seems to impose. Over all it remains very focused on the people dealing ith medications, doctors, home life, hopes, fears and viral load. It does not worry itself or its subjects with overt or cumbersome lighting effects; much of the footage is taken on-the-move.
The direct-to-camera interviews include anecdotal information about the HIV-drugs by the people taking them, this provides rare insights into dealing with copious amounts of unexpected faeces in public places, plus other horrible side-effects. However it remains problematic that these suppositions and anecdotes are not supported with adequate in-depth or even cursory facts.
Somewhat frustratingly, director Jay Corcoran employs captions of statistics such as how many deaths from AIDS have occurred in the USA, how many people are infected per year, but never displays the types of drugs available or describes what they actually do.
Before seeing the film one may need to brush up on what is Crixivan or what is a reverse transcriptase inhibitor, protease inhibitor or even what is a viral load?
It tends to trade on emotive issues of who dies and who lives by the end of the period of documentary research, which doesn't provide much scientific educational material and even as it gives an anthropological insight ultimately one is left wondering who the audience is and what are the aims and objectives of the film - there is a very American morality evident.
It is a curious documentary, rather than a bad one, because any group of people dealing with treatments for an as yet incurable disease are going to encounter side-effects, strains, fears, disappointments, relationship breakdowns and a gamut of other obstacles. The documentary illuminates this quite well without really offering a macroscopic social view. One never discovers how these subjects fit in their community their greater community or social interactions remain unexplored.
It is important to create a record of time and place, especially when dealing with a subject as mysterious and complex as living with HIV, but I fear this documentary is not the wake-up call required to assist an apathetic and distracted public to take heed of anything more than Safe Sex. It is worth viewing if you are involved in health or social service delivery to people living with HIV as a discussion starter, but I would not advise newly diagnosed HIV people to view it.
If you live with it, you do not need to see it on the screen for an hour and you would get much much more support and information in a social-support group. It is good to know this film exists and I do think it deserves to be seen.
You can view more information at Wringing Hands Productions
David P. Jobling
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