TVE Asia Pacific is co-organising an international film festival on HIV/AIDS in Bangkok, Thailand, from 12 to 15 July inclusive.

Some of the world's best television programmes and documentary films on the global pandemic will be showcased at the 2004 AIDS Film Festival, a highlight of the Silabha Art and Cultural Programme of the XV International AIDS Conference (IAC 2004).

The conference, organised by the International AIDS Society, in partnership with the Thai Ministry of Public Health, being held in the Thai capital from July 11 to 16. Several thousand delegates -- from scientists to activists, and development workers to persons living with HIV -- will be attending the event, the year's largest gathering on the subject.

The film festival itself is organised in collaboration with Apex International Entertainment Company of Thailand and the Goethe Institut Bangkok. It is being been financially or materially supported by (listed alphabetically): Canon, Novib - Oxfam Netherlands, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) - East Asia and Pacific Regional Office, and United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP).

Nearly 40 titles have been selected from among over 100 entries received from all geographical regions of the world, representing a broad range of issues, themes, formats and perspectives. These cover a variety of formats -- documentaries, docu-drama, current affairs programming, entertainment formats (music, animation, single episode or serial dramas) and public service announcements or television spots.

The film festival is not confined to the XV International AIDS Conference 2004. In a conscious attempt to reach out to Bangkok citizens, selected films are also being screened at two city venues: the Goethe Institut, and Lido cinema. At these venues, screenings will take place in the evenings, while at the IMPACTConvention Centre in Muang Thong Thani -- the conference venue -- daily screenings will start at 1 p.m. and continue until evening every day from July 12 to 15.

Click here for schedules and film line-up at each venue.

All films screened at the festival will be in English. Several selected productions were made in other languages, but have either English sub-titles or voice-overs. The line-up includes both high budget productions made for broadcast television as well as educational and instructional films made for non-broadcast use.

A number of new productions just made the deadline, and will have their global or Asian premiere taking place at this film festival.

The film festival aims to showcase the best films and TV programmes on HIV/AIDS to the conference delegates and the Thai public, and provide a powerful audio-visual context to the scientific, economic, social and cultural aspects of HIV/AIDS being discussed and debated at the conference.

"Films to be screened at the festival highlight the efforts and spirit of people living with HIV, researchers and community workers committed to combating the pandemic," says Nalaka Gunawardene, head of TVE Asia Pacific. "Films to be screened at this festival are ample evidence that television and film professionals round the world are increasingly covering HIV as a major development concern of our times."

TVE Asia Pacific also hopes that the festival will promote the strategic use of audio-visual media -- television, video and film -- as an effective means of raising awareness and understanding on HIV/AIDS. The conference theme this year is Access for All, reflecting the need for all groups to have access to all resources that have been developed after 20 years of coping with HIV/AIDS.

The film festival was announced in April 2004 through an open call audio-visual creations originally produced in television, video, cinema or digital media, in any educational or entertainment format. The only requirement was that these productions had, as a central theme, any aspect of HIV/AIDS.

Short-listing and selection of films took place during early and mid June 2004 by TVE Asia Pacific's team in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and the IAC 2004 Cultural Programme team in Bangkok, Thailand. Television and film professionals with many years of international experience, as well as development journalists, were involved in the process.