The Other City

On Saturday night, after a long day working at a soccer tournament, I went to see an outdoor screening of the documentary “The Other City.”  The only reason I went was to try and sell some baked goods we had left over from the soccer tournament as a fundraiser to send kids to camp this summer, and I’m so glad that I did.

The film is based on an expose that was published in the Washington Post about HIV/AIDS in Washington, DC.  I’ve for a while known that DC has a high incidents of HIV/AIDS, but this film was eye opening.  At least 3% of the District of Columbia has HIV/AIDS.  According to the CDC, 1% of the population contracting HIV/AIDS is considered a “general or severe” epidemic.  And while DC isn’t the only city in the country experiencing this type of epidemic it does have the worst rate in the country and is equivalent to many Sub-Saharan African countries.

Did you know that HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death among black women between the ages of 25-34?  Yeah, me neither.

The thing I really appreciated about this film was that it addressed many of the preconceived notions I think many of us, or at least I’m willing to say, I have, previously held.  For example, it’s easy to say just wear a condom if you are having sex with many partners.  One of the women in the film, J’mia Edwards is a mother of three and HIV positive.  She made the point that if you are sleeping with someone who is beating you, the last thing you are going to do is to ask them to do something that may set them off and risk getting beat.

At a later point in the film the same facing possible eviction from her apartment, J’mia said that given the choice of having to sleep on the streets with her kids, or sleeping with a man so her kids had a place to stay, she would choose the later.  It’s not as black and white when your decisions mean survival for your children.

I’ve highlighted J’mia’s story because it resonated with me, but the film also does an excellent job looking at HIV/AIDS amongst the gay population, the needle exchange programs and HIV/AIDS among drug users, and the increased incidents of infection among the growing latino community in DC.  I highly recommend this film to everyone.

Living in a city forces you to face the injustice of the world daily.  In DC there is extreme wealth and extreme poverty literally living side by side.  You have the most powerful people in the world living blocks from some of some of the most disenfranchised.  This film brought up a lot of questions and made me question a lot of things.  I won’t even begin to pretend to have any answers to how to begin to deal with any of these problems.  But I do think that the first step is being present where you are.  Living in the city isn’t always easy, but being engaged with your neighbors and in your neighborhoods is a first step to being aware that these issues exist and must be addressed.

All that to say, you should check out the film, www.theothercity.com.