Standard Podcast [ 47 min 41 s | 27.29 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (534)

German filmmaker Anne Sono directed I Won’t Go Quietly, a 2012 documentary about several women who questioned their “HIV-positive” labels and refused to take AIDS drugs. Anne talks with “How Positive Are You” co-host Elizabeth Ely about AIDS authorities’ ongoing attack on families, mothers and nature itself. How much of AIDS rethinking should be a fight against something, and what does it mean to come from a place of “inner strength”? How can our listeners and experts help families in these situations?

Join us as we explore these questions and others. At the time of taping, Sylvie, a mother from Geneva, Switzerland, was fighting to regain medical custody of her infant. (The outcome went against the family; it lacks resources to continue the legal fight.) Barbara Seebald‘s recent victory in her appeal against the Austrian authorities inspires hope; however, she still seeks custody of one of her children, Muriel, featured in the film and now five years old.

Anne is an independent filmmaker and owner of Blue Bell Media. She has a degree in economics and has worked as a business manager and economist for film production companies and alternative schools. One of these schools she founded herself.

I Won’t Go Quietly (short version in English here; British filmmaker Joan Shenton‘s review here)  features, in addition to Seebald’s story, the stories of Americans Karri Stokely, Lindsey Nagel (now the mother of Baby Rico, the subject of Episode 61), Norwegian Line Halstad and two Russian women — one of whom was murdered the night of the film’s premiere, with no evidence so far that this was related to her testimony in the film.  (See “Requiem for Tamara.”)

In the years preceding this groundbreaking documentary, Anne made four other films: . . . Denn Ich Werde Gelebt Haben (Then I Shall Have Lived), about two women diagnosed with breast cancer at a very young age; Dream School; School Is Over; and Ship of Fools, about the German anti-psychiatric movement. Anne gratefully accepts donations and other forms of support for her work.

Mentioned in this Podcast is Dr. Christian Fiala, whom we interviewed in Episode 77. Information about the songwriter and musicians for I Won’t Go Quietly is available here.

You can arrange a screening of I Won’t Go Quietly, for instance at cinemas, vegetarian restaurants, associations, or on TV. It is currently enjoying growing interest in France, and volunteers have made it available in nine languages. To schedule a screening, contact Anne and order a DVD here. As far as she knows, this film has never been shown publicly in the U.S.; your event might very well be its American premiere, and “How Positive Are You” would help publicize it if you let us know.

Watch this space for updates on Anne’s next project, a film about mainstream cancer treatments and their risks. Please support this project by visiting here.

UPDATE, January 2016: Several AIDS-dissident films are now available on YouTube!  Immunity Resource Foundation Web site editor Mohammed Aziz writes as of January 14 that Joan Shenton and Andi Reiss’ Meditel film production company granted YouTube channel Question Everything permission to upload both Positively False and Positive Hell (English/Spanish version and French-subtitled version), which it has done. We see a lot of other AIDS-dissident documentaries on the channel, including Anne Sono’s I Won’t Go Quietly and the acclaimed House of Numbers, so head on over there.