“One Day on Earth” is a global initiative involving thousands of filmmakers
On 11 November 2011, UNAIDS teamed up with the global initiative, “One Day on Earth” to film the many faces of the HIV response. More than 50 UNAIDS field offices in all parts of the globe participated in the project and captured different HIV-related events taking place during a 24-hour period.
Using small high definition video cameras donated by “One Day on Earth,” field staff filmed a wide range of activities. For example, in sub-Saharan Africa, UNAIDS employees video-taped the flying doctors that bring HIV services to remote communities in the mountains of Lesotho. In Tajikistan, the focus was on a civil society organization called “Spin Plus,” which provides methadone substitution therapy to injecting drug users and in Sri Lanka a UNAIDS staff member living with HIV filmed a program which encouraged hospital staff to overcome stigma and discrimination.
Every minute, in every corner of the world there are health care workers, civil society groups and people living with HIV who are working tirelessly to bring much needed HIV prevention, treatment and care and support to communities
UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé
“Every minute, in every corner of the world there are health care workers, civil society groups and people living with HIV who are working tirelessly to bring much needed HIV prevention, treatment and care and support to communities,” said UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé. “We wanted to chronicle their efforts and show that everyday we are coming one step closer to reaching the UNAIDS vision of Zero new HIV infections, Zero discrimination and Zero AIDS-related deaths.”
It is the first time that UNAIDS has participated in the collaborative filming experience which is the brainchild of Kyle Ruddick and Brandon Litman, two entrepreneurs from the United States of America. “Our goal was to film on one day in every country of the world. We wanted to show the amazing diversity, conflict, tragedy and triumph that occur in one day,” said Mr. Litman.
The first annual simultaneous filming event took place last year when thousands of documentary filmmakers, students and citizens in over 190 countries recorded a wide range of events on 10 October 2010. Last year’s footage was made into a feature-length documentary film which will be screened globally next February. In addition all the material is publicly available via an online searchable archive.
