“Why Us? Left Behind and Dying” is the story of a small group of inner-city African-American teenagers, ages 14-17, exploring the social, cultural, and scientific reasons why HIV rates are disproportionately high in black America and Africa.

They come from Pittsburgh's Westinghouse High School-- academically one of the lowest rated high schools in Pennsylvania. They are often left behind by the larger society and their community has been left behind in the fight against HIV/AIDS. (African-Americans are only about 13% of US population, but account for 45% of HIV cases).

This film is simultaneously a documentary and a research project. The students’ faces are not shown because they were research subjects --minor children in an abstinence-based school district talking about their own sex lives. The goal was to find out if working on this film would change the students' beliefs, attitudes, or sexual behavior.

The students interview HIV positive heterosexuals, homosexuals, and intravenous drug users. They question scientists who are searching for the origin of AIDS.

They explore the connection between HIV and secrecy, gender inequality, and homophobia in the black community.

They also find out how prison incarceration, racism, and poverty help the virus flourish in their world.

The film is structured entirely from the students' point of view as interviewers and as participants. At the end, we find out what difference this experience made in their lives, if any.

Director: Claudia Pryor Malis (Stamford, CT)

Location: Marriott Hotel - Salon A