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Anyone seen the new “documentary” film, “Fig Trees: A documentary about AIDS, Pills and Gertrude Stein” (2009) by Canadian director John Greyson? It’s about AIDS activism in South Africa (and Canada)? The clip, above, from the film has actors portraying South African AIDS activists (Simon Nkoli, Christopher Moraka, Gugu Dlamini and Nkosi Johnson) “… sing[ing] about their lives and their refusal to be immortalized as saints and martyrs“.

In a second clip, which I could not embed, “… Zackie Achmat is too weak to attend the 2002 Barcelona International AIDS conference, and so sends his speech on video instead. This becomes sampled and transformed into an aria about his treatment strike.”