The Gift

5/20/18. This was such a scary documentary to watch. That's because it deals with a very emotional issue among gay men - being HIV positive. When a lot of the gay men culture revolves around anonymous unprotected sex as the way to interact, it is incredible that gay men who have a hard time with this kind of lifestyle would resort to getting infected just so they could fit in. Even worse are those who are HIV positive and are more than willing to infect others. Getting infected is terrible and gay men should practice safe sex, not just for themselves but for their partners. One's own health should be a priority all the time. This is must-viewing for adolescents and young men who are exploring their sexuality.

As a State Health Department HIV Prevention Program, we provide regular training opportunities for local health departments and community-based organizations. We offer a two-day workshop six times each year designed to improve the skills of individuals who provide HIV Counseling, Testing and Referral Services.

Integrated into the curriculum is a documentary called "The Gift" by filmmaker Louise Hogarth. The film presents varied points of view on the controversial practice called "bug chasing", a term used to describe the efforts of some individuals who are choosing to become infected with HIV. Although the film is primarily centered on this phenomenon, a number of other very relevant issues are introduced by the film.

Increasing others' awareness of the practice of "bug chasing" is just one outcome we have seen in the showing of the film. More importantly, by presenting the experiences of a few individuals in extreme situations, "The Gift" brings about a better understanding of the complex and common reasons why anyone might risk becoming infected with HIV, even the majority of people who are not "bug chasers".

We show the film over the course of two days followed by a facilitated discussion. We ask the group the following questions to help broaden the scope of the film and the situations to which the film's messages might apply: • Despite great risk, two characters openly sought "the bug" to be part of a group with which they identified. In what other ways might the desire to belong impact the individuals that you work with? • There was a sense of fatalism expressed by some of the characters—they seemed to believe that contracting HIV was inevitable. How does this type of fatalism manifest itself among the individuals that you work with? How might it impact their risk-taking behavior? • "Culture" encompasses many aspects of a person's identification including past experiences, background and group affiliation. In your setting, how might an individual's culture impact how prevention services are delivered?

The majority of workshop participants over the past two years have responded very positively to the film. Many reported that experiencing "The Gift" was the part of the workshop that they liked the most. Others continue to express that since viewing "The Gift", the effectiveness of their interactions with individuals at risk for HIV has improved.

My name is Dani. I've been hearing about your documentary from my peers and the community of HIV prevention and education I work in. So I decided a couple of weeks ago to stay up until 3am and watch your film on the Sundance Channel. I am writing you first and foremost to congratulate you on a very powerful and moving film. I taped it and watched it probably five or six times, crying over this tragic problem in our community. As a health educator, it deeply saddens me and also awakened me to realize that I have to work harder because of this. As a health educator and a registered nurse myself, I firmly believe that this is a very effective and valuable tool we can show and disseminate to the community in general to decrease the incidence of HIV and AIDS not only in the Los Angeles county but everywhere it is needed. Thank you so much for making this film. This film delivers a powerful punch to awaken everybody's senses, to educate without ignorance and fear.

June 6, 2003 New York Times CRITIC'S CHOICE

Forsaking Health to Join the H.I.V. Club By STEPHEN HOLDEN

Doug Hitzel in Louise Hogarth's documentary, "The Gift," part of NewFest 2003: The New York Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. Far and away the most important selection in NewFest 2003: The New York Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, celebrating its 15th anniversary, is Louise Hogarth's alarming documentary, "The Gift." This film, to be screened at the New York University Cantor Film Center tomorrow evening, examines the increasing ineffectiveness of safer-sex education in urban gay culture and the resulting rise in H.I.V.-infection rates among younger men. The title refers to a small, Internet-fed subculture that romanticizes H.I.V. infection in ritualized initiations known as conversion parties, at which the virus, known as "the gift," is passed to so-called bug-chasers. A subject that could easily have been sensationalized is treated evenhandedly in a film that suggests that in an effort not to offend those who are H.I.V.-positive, AIDS educators have sent out messages that are too vague and timid to register. The misleading ads for drugs that have kept AIDS patients alive show robust, sexy musclemen who seem carefree and asymptomatic. Several men who give and attend large, organized sex parties testify that revealing your H.I.V. status has become an unspoken taboo at such affairs, and that the use of condoms is now optional and in some cases even discouraged. Two young men who deliberately became infected are also interviewed. One is tearfully regretful about his decision, the other relieved because he figures that he has a few more years of good health and freedom from worry before he becomes ill. For the first man, an insecure outsider longing for acceptance, the allure of infection was a feeling of belonging to a club. For the second it was the more nihilistic decision to live for the moment. Reflecting on the shift in attitude is a support group of older AIDS patients, all suffering life-threatening cardiovascular side effects from the medications that are keeping them alive. The tone of their conversation mixes sadness with anger at the degree to which many urban gay men have blinded themselves to an unpleasant truth. The young men seeking "the gift' simply don't know what awaits them. Linda Goode Bryant's documentary "Flag Wars," showing tonight at the Cantor Film Center, takes a hardheaded look at urban gentrification and what happens when a working-class (largely African-American) neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio, becomes a mecca for middle-class lesbian and gay homeowners. As the city declares the neighborhood a historic district, stringent new restrictions force many residents to abandon the neighborhood in which they grew up. This year's festival is more internationalist than ever. Last night's festival-opening film, "Mambo Italiano," has been described as a gay Italian-American "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." The closing-night film (on June 15), "Merci Dr. Rey," is a French farce starring Dianne Wiest as an American opera diva who returns to Paris, where her gay son lives. The protagonist of the Sri Lankan comedy "Flying With One Wing" is a mechanic (married to a woman) who has successfully passed as a man until a doctor, treating an injury, discovers her secret. "Gasoline" suggests an Italian lesbian "Thelma and Louise." "Yossi and Jagger" is the love story of two Israeli soldiers. "Kiki and Tiger," set in Germany on the eve of the war in Kosovo, explores the interplay of sex and politics in the friendship of a gay Serb who falls in love with a straight illegal immigrant from Albania. Whether the setting is Sri Lanka or Israel or Germany, the gay and lesbian characters face variations of the same social pressures, stereotyping and potential violence that they do in the United States.

Every once in a while a film crosses the dark chasm between the screen and viewer and forges a bridge of truth between the heart of the viewer and the heart of the matter. The Gift is a perfect example of that as it naturally facilitates personal responsibility. This film goes way beyond issues of sexual orientation. Its message is valuable to individuals of all orientations. This is a do or die documentary focusing on death affirming choices that some souls make and the life affirming choices that they renounce.

The most impactful and transformative qualities that this film delivers, frame by frame, are couched between the spoken words and moving images. Thie Gift is masterful and highly effective in leaving the viewer with a compelling message that only grows on you from the moment that the screening ends because of the movie behind the one projected on screen which really begins the moment the ending credits roll.

The Gift does not pull any punches. It comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comfortable. It is not for the fearful or for those who cannot pierce their own veil of denial and illusion. It holds the mirror up for the audience to see the dark underbelly of sexual addiction, self abandonment, internalized homophobia, and a subconscious thanatological desire.

Many feel more comfortable with laying the blame at the feet of the government, pharmaceutical companies or some other external source than we do with taking ownership over our own actions as a first step in establishing dominion over this epidemic. The Gift exposes the immediate necessity for a complete overhaul of HIV prevention programs and the consciousness of those individuals who run them, run to them, and run from them.

I now understand the deeper meaning behind the film's title. It is called The Gift because this film is a gift that the wise man can keep. It is a gift that promotes life instead of death.

Louise Hogarth has courage beyond words and pictures and that is what this film encourages the viewer to have more of...courage to face the nature of the beast within and to emerge transformed.

See this film now. It could save your life or the life of someone you love. It's that simple.