Films: "Coming to Say Goodbye" and "Cost of Living"

"Coming to Say Goodbye:Stories of AIDS in Africa" is a stunning documentary about the AIDS pandemic as it is experienced today by East Africans. Through the eyes of courageous people suffering from AIDS and their eloquent and committed care-givers, we see how AIDS is not just a “health crisis” but is part of the cycle of poverty and inequality that is devastating to food security and economic development in the poorest countries of the world.

"Cost of Living" investigates the situation of the 90% of people infected with HIV who live in developing countries, most of whom don't have access to the drugs that could keep them alive because they are still under patent to major pharmaceutical companies -- and so too expensive for their national health services. This documentary investigates why Thailand and South Africa applied to use compulsory licenses and parallel importing -- practices agreed under World Trade Organization guidelines -- to make their own generic versions of anti-retroviral drugs to halt the AIDS epidemic in their countries, and asks why anti-retroviral drugs still aren't included in their lists of essential drugs.

The films will be followed by an open discussion led by John Inverson of ActUP EastBay and Ninu Kidane of Africa Network.

Suggested donation $5 - $10; sponsored by Peninsula Peace and Justice Center, World Centric, and Peace Umbrella of Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto.