Passing
the Torch

Across three decades, Swedish director Staffan Hildebrand has witnessed this dramatic story unfold through the individuals affected by the disease and the ones changing its course. Hildebrand’s documentation has yielded over 800 hours of raw footage, interviews and reports, shot in 50 countries. All of the material has been compiled into a unique searchable archive called Face of AIDS at the Karolinska Institutet University Library in Stockholm, Sweden.

Selected never-before-seen footage from the archive will make up the core of Passing the Torch but it will also feature new material.

Together with South African activist and journalist, Mary-Jane Matsolo, Hildebrand will travel to different parts of the world to explore the situation of today and historical lessons of the past. They will examine future threats and the political factors that govern the resources needed to fight on. This is a battle where the response to this disease in recent years has lost ground. In order to influence politicians and other leaders, we need a new, third wave of activism to put HIV and AIDS back onto the global agenda.

We need a new generation of HIV and AIDS activists getting involved, taking up the torch from the older pioneers. The fight against HIV and AIDS must continue!

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To get an overview of Staffan Hildebrand’s unique film archive, visit faceofaids.ki.se.