Viral Interventions

On this eve of Day Without Art, six new short films from Nepal, Bulgaria, Brazil, Ecuador, and Canada tell urgent and extraordinary stories about living with HIV today. The techniques are as diverse as their makers: from lush animation and staged floral portraits, to radical sex performances and hybrid documentary mash-ups. Their voices are equally unforgettable, brimming with laughter, tears, fury, and joyful activism. Together, they explore autobiographical stories from around the globe about this pandemic, which still claims more than half a million lives every year.

These six short films were produced by Viral Interventions, a York University research-creation project led by John Greyson and Sarah Flicker that, since 2020, has commissioned artists, activists, and scholars to collaborate on making new films about living with HIV today. See related Viral Interventions conference and exhibition November 29–30 at Vtape.

World Premiere. Co-presented with Vtape, Sensorium, Archive/Counter Archive, Digital Justice, The ArQuives, CATIE, Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network, AIDS Committee of Toronto, and TIFF Community Impact.

The event takes place at TIFF Lightbox – Cinema 3 – Piers Handling Cinema.

The duration of this event is 100 minutes and includes a post-screening conversation with the filmmakers.