Columbia teacher, students produce provcative film Television movie on UPN focuses on HIV positive African-American males By Neda Simeonova Assistant Editor         The one-hour drama, “Kevin’s Room” produced by the Chicago Department of Public Health along with Black Cat Productions, premiered on Channel 50 (WPWR – TV) on Sunday, April 22 at 8:00 p.m. The drama is set in Chicago and focuses on preventing HIV/ AIDS transmission among African-American, gay men. This is the first film that brings attention to gay relationships in the African-American community.         The movie shows the daily struggles of five African-American gay men. Through participation in a support group, each of the men learn valuable lessons that will forever impact their lives.         The producer/director of “Kevin’s Room” and owner of Black Cat Productions in Chicago, Sharon Zurek, is also a part-time instructor for the Film and Video department here at Columbia.         “When I first heard about the project I was immediately interested,” Zurek said. The executive producer and creator, Lora Branch, came up with the idea for the film. Branch wrote the script along with Martha Shaifer-Hartel and Andrew Spieldenner. “It was a very interesting development of the script. A couple of people worked on it and it ended being a script by committee,” said Branch.         Lora Branch, who currently is the director of the Office of Gay and Lesbian Health at the Chicago Department of Public Health, is also a Columbia graduate. “The idea came from Lora. She knew what she had to do: I brought the production team, the people and the equipment,” Zurek said.         According to Branch, gay men of color, especially African-American and Latino, have not benefited from programs about awareness and prevention of HIV/AIDS. “I don’t think that the message has gotten through,” Branch said. “Recently there has been much written about current HIV statistics in communities of color and how the traditional messages of prevention have not been heard,” Zurek added.         According to Jeremy Manier, a Chicago Tribune staff writer, researchers in Chicago report that 30 percent of young, gay, African-American men are infected with HIV. “The infection rate for gay blacks was twice that of any other ethnic group, a finding that shocked some experts despite the already well-documented racial gap in AIDS cases,” reported Manier.         After script development, Zuerk only took twelve days to shoot the film. “Literally, we shot a feature in two weeks,” Zurek said. She was happy to bring attention to the fact that many of the crew and actors were Columbia graduates or current film students. “We could not have done this without them,” she said. “Some of the students were in my graduate classes.” Some of the technical crew that worked on the film had over 20 years of experience in the field. “We gave them support because we were a little tight on the money. And the actors I just loved them, they were my joy! ”         Branch thinks that they accomplished a lot with “Kevin’s Room.” “Sharon convinced me to do something of great quality and I’m very happy about the results,” she said.         Initially “Kevin’s Room” was planned to expand into several more one-hour episodes but “we didn’t have the money,” Zurek said. Both she and Branch hope that eventually this would be accomplished. “The movie is made so that we bring up a lot of issues and we resolved some of them. We hope to have few more episodes and it is designed to generate more,” Branch said. As of now, “Kevin’s Room” has been accepted into two festivals : The 2001 New York Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, and the 25 th San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Festival. Zurek is proud of the outcome of “Kevin’s Room,” “It has no right to be as good as it is.” The Columbia Chronicle would like to hear your opinion on this topic. Note: If your browser does not support multiple windows, click here. Back to top   |   Home Copyright © 2001, Columbia Chronicle Columbia Chronicle articles, photos, and graphics are the property of the Columbia Chronicle and may not be reproduced or published without written permission from the staff, editors, or faculty advisor. The Columbia Chronicle is a student produced publication of Columbia College Chicago and does not necessarily represent, in whole or in part, the views of Columbia College administrators, faculty or students.

April 23, 2001 This week in Campus News: Tuition increase set for next fall Columbia teacher, students produce provcative film Area college students unite for poetry Cuban officials visit Columbia More colleges requiring assesment for graduates CCABJ hosts media mixer Students create global campaign News and Notes Search our archive: The Columbia Chronicle is an award-winning college newspaper written and distributed weekly by the students at Views expressed here are not necessarily those of the Journalism Department or the college. Visit the Columbia College Chicago Web Site