A Personal Message from the Director

1/21/2012: Please click here to read the most recent Project update!

We did not start this project to sim­ply ‘make a film,’ but to mobi­lize change on the most press­ing pub­lic health issue of our time: TB and HIV. We hope They Go to Die will act as a cen­ter point to this mobi­liza­tion. This short video will let you know where I am com­ing from per­son­ally. If we turn an epi­demic into an emo­tion, we moti­vate change. If you are inter­ested in part­ner­ing with the film, please click here for an infor­ma­tion packet after watch­ing the video mes­sage.                       Jonathan Smith, Direc­tor | Epidemiologist

We are cur­rently work­ing to build a net­work of HIV, TB, M(X)DR-TB, and human rights orga­ni­za­tions, as well as moti­vated indi­vid­u­als, in order to increase aware­ness, pro­mote access to essen­tial med­i­cines, secure finan­cial sta­bil­ity for com­ple­tion of the project, and most impor­tantly, trans­late our research into change. If you are inter­ested in sup­port­ing the film, please down­load the film’s infor­ma­tion packet here to get to know the project, under­stand its roots and core val­ues, and over­all goals. ‘Sup­port’ is not rel­e­gated to only finan­cial sup­port, and involves count­less other (non-financial) ways to mobi­lize this issue. How­ever, we are at a com­plete halt due to finan­cial con­straints and it is a nec­es­sary evil; if you would like to donate, make a con­tri­bu­tion by click­ing the Pay­Pal link on the sidebar.

“They Go to Die raises con­cerns of TB, HIV, and human rights vio­la­tions in South Africa’s min­ing indus­try through the prism of life, love, and fam­ily. Unlike tra­di­tional health films, it focuses on rela­tion­ships and bond­ing, not sim­ply dis­ease. It is a film that tran­scends cul­ture and paints a por­trait of com­mon humanity.”

 

11 thoughts on “A Personal Message from the Director”

  2. I just saw a pre­view, defi­nately look­ing for­ward to the full thing! I com­mend Mr. Smith for tak­ing on this and I can see this trans­form­ing the future of pub­lic health. Its time pub­lic health specif­i­cally global health go beyond the pages of jour­nal. Thank you and well done!!!

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  3. Hi Mr. Smith,
    I saw you present this past week­end at the UAEM national con­fer­ence and I would like to say how impressed and impacted I was by the footage you caught and the clips you showed. I hope and plan to spread the word and let this mes­sage be heard. Thank you for shar­ing your expe­ri­ences and I can­not wait to see the fin­ished prod­uct.
    –Hillary

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  4. You are such an inspi­ra­tion. I have been shar­ing this link with every­one I know; hope­fully it helps spread the word and helps you get the fund­ing you need! You are doing an out­stand­ing job con­vey­ing the impor­tance of your work to the pub­lic. In my eyes, there is no point in research with­out knowl­edge trans­la­tion, and you are doing this won­der­fully — par­ing research with advo­cacy, and hope­fully evok­ing change. Being able to engage the pub­lic is so key. Congrats.

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  5. I want to see your doc­u­men­tary. I see from the intro clip, you will por­tray the Africans as I saw them. For that I am grate­ful and want to learn of their issues.

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  7. Hi there,
    Fan­tas­tic film-making, who is your camera-man (or woman)? Very com­pelling sto­ry­telling through edit­ing, great to see such good brains work­ing with such tal­ented film-makers. Can’t wait to see the fin­ished product.

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  8. This looks like such an inter­est­ing research and doc­u­men­tary — I work in fair trad­ing in agri­cul­ture and such issues are very impor­tant in my sec­tor too. I am eager to learn more about the issues for min­ing work­ers and look­ing for­ward to see your work when ready!

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  9. I work in Pub­lic Health with TB, HIV/STD, Lead-poisoning, etc. etc. Bravo to you, I am always appalled (?), that peo­ple know so lit­tle about pub­lic health prob­lems; it’s almost like there is no con­sen­sus, or power, or enough of either to make dif­fer­ences. I always want to go the moun­tain top, shout­ing for concern/precaution/vaccination. Good for you!

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  11. Thanks so much for join­ing us at the Globe­Med Global Health Sum­mit, Jonathan! We absolutely loved hear­ing from you — to quote one of our stu­dents, “Jonathan was refresh­ingly hon­est”. So true. Thanks again and we’re all look­ing for­ward to the final product.

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