Strong Signal

The Culture of AIDS
[Television]

BET Continues to Make HIV/AIDS Part of Its Regularly Scheduled Programs
by Chael Needle

Maybe you tuned in to BET’s video countdown show, 106 & Park, in early December and heard Fantasia share with the audience how she used to feel pressured to have sex in order not to lose the man she was with. And maybe you were surprised that rapper Remy Ma dropped by as well between videos, or that AIDS activist Marvelyn Brown spoke about her experiences of living with HIV.

Maybe you spotted one of the “Red Blood, Green Dollars and Black Skin” news briefs sprinkled throughout BET’s programming day. A couple of days later, maybe you caught the short film, Let’s Talk, one of the winners of BET’s second annual Rap-It-Up/Black AIDS Short Subject (RIU/BASS) Film Competition, and became drawn into the story of a couple, played by Lamman Rucker [A&U, January 2007] and Jillian Reeves, who are courting each other but hit a snag when the topic of HIV-antibody testing comes up.
Maybe you were puzzled by the abundance of HIV/AIDS content until you realized it was World AIDS Day-time again. Ok, that explains it!

The explanation, I’m happy to say, is not that simple. True, like other networks, BET sought to engage viewers with messages of awareness and action during the December 1 weekend, but even on this point BET clocked up an extra mile. To commemorate twenty-five years of the pandemic, BET produced twenty-five spots featuring twenty-five heroes in the AIDS fight, each introduced by a well-known musical artist. 25 Heroes, as it was called, sought to remind the public that “this is all of our fight,” says Sonya Lockett, vice president, Public Affairs, BET. “So many of us have so many different resources or talents that we could just put toward fighting this disease. We wanted to highlight people who were out there in the entertainment industry, in the medical field, in government, people who are living with AIDS, ordinary citizens, and how each of them has done something in the fight.” With this kind of innovative message saturation, is it any wonder that BET.com visitors chose Alicia Keys as the 2006 Person of the Year, appreciating her music as much as her AIDS activism?

And the beat goes on. This month, for example, BET will air Reflections, the short film that took top honors when the network joined forces with Scenarios USA, a nonprofit that promotes youth empowerment through writing and filmmaking, in order to give teen filmmakers, ages thirteen to eighteen, the chance to express themselves via the “What’s the REAL DEAL on Growing Up in the Age of AIDS?” National Story and Scriptwriting Contest. As RIU/BASS, made possible through a partnership with the Black AIDS Institute and the Kaiser Family Foundation, tends to attract older filmmakers, says Lockett, BET wanted to help bring young people’s voices to the fore.

This year’s inaugural winner, Reflections, written by Keyana Ray, will premiere on BET in time for February 7, National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. Reflections airs on February 4 at 12 p.m. ET/PT, with an encore broadcast on February 7 and 18. A half-hour documentary, Behind the Scenes: Reflections, will also air on February 4 following the film’s premiere. The documentary, whose broadcast was made possible in part by the Ford Foundation, will be available to teachers, educators, and community groups nationwide along with a study guide to help facilitate dialogues about the film.

Says Lockett: “The Scenarios partnership this year was a natural, good progression, and we’re really excited about this upcoming film. The young lady who wrote it is just amazing; she’s hilarious. Just a great kid; [her] aunt died of AIDS and it was an issue close to her heart. She’s seventeen, living outside of Chicago—she’s our target audience. And to hear her voice was really exciting.” Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood (Love & Basketball), the film follows three young women as they navigate a community impacted by substance abuse and AIDS. Reggie Rock Bythewood, Prince-Bythewood’s husband and writer of Spike Lee’s Get on the Bus, managed the script revision process. Both worked with Ray throughout the process.

Odicie, one of the winners of the third annual RIU/BASS Film Competition, debuts on February 18 at 12:30 p.m. Penned by Beverly Abbott, Casey Arrillaga, and Wyndle Jordan, Odicie stars longtime AIDS activist Sheryl Lee Ralph. The film, which will also screen at two AIDS conferences this month, follows nine-year-old Odicie Johnson as she seeks the truth about her uncle’s death that her family has been hiding. Also, on February 7, National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, BET will debut the BET News special, Sex, Myths, and the Real Deal, a half-hour show (which also comes with a study guide) that exposes and explores common misconceptions that many young adults hold about HIV/AIDS.

While BET certainly wouldn’t miss the chance to spotlight World AIDS Day or National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, the network’s commitment to covering the pandemic never wavers. Maybe the medium really is the message.

Chael Needle is Managing Editor of A&U.

Ferbruary 2007