HIV in the Rust Belt

Recently, many scholars have been making connections between the AIDS crisis and the COVID-19 crisis, particularly in relation to stigma, marginalization and fear. As part of our mission, The Ryan White Program at The University of Toledo Medical Center is helping to create different dialogue, by sharing the history of HIV in our region, and by igniting hope for those impacted by HIV locally and globally. The time to tell the story of HIV in the Rust Belt is now.

Our film, HIV in the Rust Belt, is a feature-length documentary film, which explores the experience of living with HIV in the Rust Belt during the height of the AIDS crisis. Through the examination of the history and life of David’s House Compassion, a grassroots HIV group home and AIDS resource center that transformed the experience of those living with HIV in northwest Ohio at the peak of the crisis, the project will tell a unique story of care in our region. It will also tell the untold story of what HIV activism looked like outside of the East and West Coasts, which had more media coverage, direct-action campaigns and higher-capacity donors.

Never before have people been turning so directly to the humanities, particularly television and film, to make meaning of a pandemic; our film directly addresses our current anxieties and questions by looking to a recent historical moment of creative collaboration and care, providing a voice and platform for those living through the AIDS crisis to provide necessary reflection for our current COVID-19 times.

Telling the story of David’s House Compassion will inspire community creativity and resiliency during this pandemic, but we need your help. 

Please consider a gift of $50, $100, $500 or any amount to the Ann Wayson Locher Memorial Fund for HIV Care, as all gifts will contribute to the producing and sharing of this film. 

For more information, please contact Richard Meeker at 419.383.4072 or Richard.Meeker@utoledo.edu