Documentarian Develops Curricula to Dispel HIV/AIDS Myths in Black Community: ...In 2006, Blacks accounted for 46 percent of the 1.1 million people in the U.S. living with HIV, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Homophobia, shame and secrecy stymie African-Americans from dealing with the spread of the disease, Pryor says.
'It's a Black disease,' but no one wants to hear that, she said.
Pryor set out in the hardest-hit African-American and African communities to discover the myriad reasons for the rampant spread of the disease, backed by a Science Education Partnership Award grant from the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Research Resources.
She went to Pittsburgh's Westinghouse High School, in a Black, low-income neighborhood, where the HIV/AIDS rate reflected the national average, to find her study participants. She found 20 students, none of whom knew if they were HIV-positive, who would give their opinions on HIV/AIDS over an 18-month period as they learned about the subject. The project transformed as the students took on a larger role, becoming interviewers and posing questions to health experts and subjects living with HIV/AIDS. They finished the documentary in 2008.
