Late Post regarding HIV.. :) --My Reaction Paper..

HIV : (Si Heidi, si Ivy at si Vanessa)

A Mediocre Advocacy

This film is another campaign material of the Department of Health (DOH) to disseminate information on the prevention of HIV and AIDS to our country. Simply, to inform us how these viruses affect our immune system.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus or HIV is a lentivirus that causes required immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a conditions in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers. This disease can lead to death but there is a drug that cans longer the life of a person who is infected with this kind of viruses. That drug is the Antiretroviral drugs (ARV), this are medications for the treatment of infection by the retroviruses, primarily HIV.

The story was lead by Gil Bustamante played by the actor Jake Cuenca. Gil Bustamante is a documentary filmmaker who tackles HIV and AIDS patients.  Bearing his video cam and an irascible assistant, he work all day just to finish his subjected film. Using San Lazaro Hospital as the plot of the story, G. Bustamante started to make the project by combining various stories of people infected with the virus. Among these are different people, different story on how they got infected. They are the 3 major characters in the story or known as the 3 victims/HIV patients named: Heidi, Ivy and Vanessa. Heidi, played by Ma. Isabel Lopez, a house wife who contracted the virus from her, an overseas contract worker who died in Saudi Arabia eventually three years ago.  Ivy, played by Iza Calzado, a women who is positive in HIV and last Vanessa, played by IC Mendoza, a gay and stand-up comedian who got the virus by doing variety of sexual pleasures.

At first, Gil Bustamante is inspired doing that project, he faced many challenges just to run that film. But not all story ends up with a happy ending, Heidi died, Ivy didn’t finish helping Bustamante to run the film while Vanessa gets beaten by a band of thugs while cruising the streets…and facing her own weakness/fear, Gil Bustamante a HIV positive. The story ends when he revealed that he is also a victim of that virus.

It is a shocking moment for us (viewers) knowing that Gil Bustamante is a positive, we thought that he is only the portraying a character that is a filmmaker.

The plot of the story was great. Characters portrayed their role very well, well done actors and actresses. The flow of the story is amazing because you don’t know what would be the next scene or what would be the ending. It will be an eye-opener to everyone that having these viruses or infected by these viruses means the end of your life. It will inform us that the fight against HIV/AIDS is not solely the responsibility of the government, it is a fight that demands responsible action from every individual. HIV/AIDS can kill us so we must be aware of that. This film will help people to realize that in we should be aware in everything that we do.