GEORGIA PREMIERE OF HBO FILMS’ OSCAR®-NOMINATED “YESTERDAY”

Written by Eric Holder, University of Georgia, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, Public Relations department head, the Peabody Awards

The Oscar-nominated film “Yesterday” will have its Georgia premiere in Athens Monday, October 10, at 7:30 p.m. at the University of Georgia’s Tate Student Center Theatre.

Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars® this year, “Yesterday,” is a film about AIDS in Africa, and will be hosted by HBO and Charter Communications in partnership with UGA’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. “Yesterday” will debut on HBO on Monday, November 28, at 9 p.m. (ET).

Sanctioned by Nelson Mandela and the Nelson Mandela Foundation, “Yesterday” is the first major film for international release to be shot completely in the Zulu language. It was shot on location in the Kwazulu Natal and Gauteng in South Africa in October, 2004. The film was written and directed by Darrell James Roodt, and produced by Anant Singh and Helena Spring, the creative team responsible for both “Cry, the Beloved Country” and “Sarafina.”

Set in contemporary South Africa ten years after the arrival of democracy, “Yesterday” is a story of courage, compassion and hope that puts a human face on the politics and statistics of the AIDS crisis, following the struggles of a young mother named Yesterday who has been diagnosed with AIDS. Leleti Khumalo (“Sarafina”) stars in the title role of the film.

Yesterday lives in Rooihoek, a remote village in South Africa’s Zululand. Her everyday life is not easy: There’s little money, no modern conveniences, and her husband is away in Johannesburg working as a miner. But she possesses a sunny nature, and takes great joy in her seven-year-old daughter Beauty (Lihle Mvelase).

The precarious balance of Yesterday’s life is suddenly threatened when she is diagnosed with AIDS and must journey afar to understand and confront her illness. Yesterday’s primary driving force is Beauty, who is a year away from starting school. Yesterday never had the chance to go to school and she sets her sights on a single goal: to be with Beauty on her first day of class, along with all the other proud mothers.

An important factor in the rapid spread of AIDS in Africa is the tendency among many Africans to have more than one sexual partner at the same time, an activity described as “concurrency” as opposed to the “serial monogamy” more frequently practiced in Asia and the West. While “concurrency” has in part a cultural basis, it has been exacerbated by poverty, as well as the cruel history of Africa, when white settlers took the most fertile land and poor black men from the villages had to travel great distances to find work. Over these long separations, new relationships developed.

In South Africa, the situation became even direr under apartheid. The Bantu Authorities Act of 1951 created 10 African “homelands,” effectively making black people nonresidents of South Africa. As these “homelands” were lacking in natural resources, virtually all the village men had to leave to work elsewhere. This is vividly illustrated in the story of “Yesterday,” as Yesterday’s husband leaves her to work in the mines of Johannesburg.

AIDS is currently the leading cause of death in Africa, and 56,000 Africans die each week. Southern Africa has about 30 percent of its people living with HIV/AIDS, while it has less than 2 percent of the world’s total population. The latest global reports estimate the total number of adults and children with HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa as 25-28 million. The number is expected to rise to 30-35 million by the end of this decade. Sub-Saharan Africa is the worst infected region in the world with over 3 million new infections and over 2 million deaths in 2003. There is only one doctor for every 18,000 Africans.

Following the 93-minute screening of “Yesterday,” there will be a conversation drawing the parallels of HIV/AIDS in the American South and in South Africa. Moderating the discussion will be Patricia Thomas, Knight Chair for Health and Medical Journalism in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. Participants will include Saint Phebe Gribble, Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health and a senior researcher in public health at the University of Capetown; Eva Hansen, AID Atlanta Speakers Bureau, a retired school teacher and a 23-year survivor of HIV; and Will Taylor, professor from UGA’s Department of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences.

The Peabody Awards, administered by UGA’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, are the oldest honor in television and radio. Today they recognize distinguished achievement and meritorious public service by stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. For more information about the Peabody Awards visit: www.peabody.uga.edu

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Sources: The Centers for Disease Control, Newsweek, New York Times Magazine, E-Health, UNAIDS & World health Organization, CNN.com, 365GAY.com.