Make sure the head goes over the one line

By Jenny Stein

In 2005, AIDS activist Stacy Friedman and 15 others took a trip to Southeast Asia that helped define their lives and provide a better understanding of a recognized global epidemic.
Although Stacy Friedman, 32, has been volunteering for a variety of AIDS related projects since high school, it was only after 9/11 that her commitment to the cause gained definition.Six years ago she started volunteering at an AIDS hospice in Harlem, N.Y. There, she leads a group of volunteers while doing local outreach. “Now that I have been volunteering at the AIDS Hospice for so long, and spent so much time with those infected, I feel like I’ve put a face to the disease,” she says. “And now there’s no turning back.”
She manages to balance her hospice work with her full-time job at the Oxygen Network as a production manager for the on-air promos team. Her commitment inspired close friend and co-worker, Chelsea Tillett, to join the cause as well. “I was blown away at how committed she was to raising awareness about AIDS," Tillet, 29, recalls, "She quickly got me involved by the sheer dedication she gave on a daily basis".
In 2005, Tillett’s brother heard of an event called TrekAsia, which consisted of participating in an adventure challenge in Vietnam while raising money for AIDS research. TrekAsia is a fundraiser for the American Foundation for AIDS Research which requires each volunteer to raise $10,000 to participate. All funds go to support HIV programs in Asia. The adventure challenge consists of kayaking in Halong Bay, trekking through the Mai Chau Valley and sleeping in local tribal villages.
“As soon as he explained it to me, I knew we had to be a part of it,” says Tillett. Given Friedman’s background in TV/Film production at Hofstra and Tillett’s experience and passion for documentaries, she suggested they make a documentary feature on the experience, which would later be known as Leaving Mai Chau. “As soon as we told people what we were doing, their first question was always ‘Why Vietnam?’" says Friedman. “No one seems to know that there is an epidemic brewing over there, as all of the press is always about Africa.” Friedman and Tillett wanted to take this opportunity to shed light on the terrifying problem. The trip consisted of 16 volunteers, all from different walks of life with different reasons for participating, but all having been touched in some way by the epidemic.
Tillett and Friedman began to form their own production company, worldFrame Productions, in March 2005 so they could film the documentary. The 14 other volunteers who signed up for the adventure challenge agreed to be filmed. “They all believed in the story we are trying to tell,” says Friedman. “Just by participating in the trip, we knew that they had the same vision of publicizing the AIDS epidemic as we did.” Some volunteers used the documentary to tell their own stories. One woman who has been HIV positive for years is using the opportunity as a platform to come out and tell her account.
Friedman recalls her last day of trekking through the Mai Chau Valley. “It was over 100 degrees, with 100 percent humidity, and the cicadas were out in full force. If you have never heard the sound of a gazillion cicadas, consider yourself lucky.” The adventure challenge was much more physically strenuous than any of the volunteers had expected. Friedman, who suffers from an ailing knee and asthma, struggled to ascend mountains in extreme heat. “Thank God for Chelsea,” says Friedman, “because she was able to keep shooting while I was struggling just to make it through the day.”
Throughout the trip Friedman and Tillett did not want to lose sight of the goal they had set in mind. Most of the time, two cameras were rolling as the filmmakers tried to capture everything that was going on, from the fighting, tears and injuries to the excitement, camaraderie and sharing homemade wine with the locals. “The [first] trip definitely was more about the actual adventure challenge, and seeing these people wildly out of their element,” Friedman says.
The filming process and the adventure challenge proved to be strenuous for the two women. “It’s a great way to test yourself, and learn what you are capable of,” Friedman says. Tillett considers the entire process of filming the documentary humbling and inspiring. “On a daily basis we are working to create a film that will motivate our audience to promote change and education about the global epidemic of AIDS.”
They are currently working to complete the project and get it onto the film festival circuit. Friedman has freelanced for several festivals including the Tribeca Film Festival and the Lake Placid Film Festival. The ultimate goal is to take the film worldwide in order to reach the largest audience possible. Ideally, someone will buy the documentary and either air it in theaters or on television for maximum exposure.The experience only strengthened their commitment to inform the world of how important international funding of treating HIV/AIDS is. “This funding can literally save lives, we saw it in action,” Tillett says. Their goal with Leaving Mai Chau is to inform and educate those who are unaware of Vietnam’s struggle with AIDS.