Workshops

Recipe for Survival - Panel Discussion with Men HIV+ > 25 Years

Terry Branoff, The Phoenix Men Project

As part of Documentary The Phoenix Men Project, filming will take place during panel discussion to be included in this Documentary, whose goal is same as GMHS2012 panel: Promote a better understanding of "the early years of HIV in America" from the perspective of HIV+ men who learned they were positive at a time when Medicine was ill-prepared for an epidemic of the size and scope of HIV. We will hear from those who were diagnosed with a disease whose name changed with time, from GRID to ARC, eventually becoming HIV/AIDS and exam what the experiences of seroconversion was like before current day treatment methods and resources.

What makes this project different. Much like Holocaust survivor stories are memorialized on film to capture in their own words, while they're still alive, from the perspective of those who survived a horrific period in European mid-20th Century history, this project addresses the explosion of HIV/AIDS in America in the early 1980's from the eyes of HIV infected men. Not just a portrait of long term HIV survivors, but digs below the surface to look at the miracle of HOW they have survived so others.

The Name. Much like the Phoenix rises from the ashes, the Phoenix Men Project examines the lives and experiences of long time survivors who recollect what it was like to learn the news, share it (or not), live your life in the face of hysteria and panic. There is something very special about these Phoenix Men and we hope to learn from their experiences. It is about rising above adversity, and speaks well beyond HIV but about surviving a crisis in whatever form it takes.

Goal. To educate, inform, examine and learn from the experiences of very special men who are around despite the odds and statistics. To examine what it is about these people that sets them apart - is it genetic, environment, psychological, spirital, metabolic, or something else. Hear, in their own words, stories of survival and maybe draw our own conclusions and lessons on how to survive despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles.