THOM FITZGERALD FIGHTS AIDS IN 3 NEEDLES

Writer/director Thom Fitzgerald traveled three continents to expose what still needs to be done to fight AIDS in 3 Needles.

3 Needles writer/director Thom Fitzgerald traveled to rural South Africa among the Pondo tribes, to the Chinese Hill Tribes in the far north of Thailand and Montreal to explore how AIDS is perceived from culture to culture.

Thom used many of the locals to act in the film, some of which had never seen a movie before.

“But I was always struck by how much they trusted us because they didn’t know exactly what a movie was. There was a scene where Mabel Adams who is an 81 year old Pondo woman. She plays the grandma in the film and she died. And after she did her death scene I said, ‘Mabel that was terrific. You did a great job. I’ll see you tomorrow.’ And Mabel came running up after me with a translator saying, ‘Thom how can I work tomorrow if I died today?’”

Thom says to continue the fight against AIDS in these impoverished countries strategies must be adopted that work for them.

“Our strategies to fight AIDS still arise from the original debate we had between gay men and political conservatives. One side shouting, ‘condoms, condoms,’ and the other one shouting, ‘abstinence, faithfulness.’ What I found was that is these things have not worked at all in Africa. Everyone that I met in the Pondo tribe understood that a condom would protect them but 25 years later still nobody had any condoms. Kids who are being raped can’t choose abstinence. These things that we’ve taught them, these strategies work for us, not for them. Human rights and the status of women is a really important factor in continuing to fight AIDS.”

3 Needles opens today in conjunction with World Aids Day.