India has had a sharp increase in the estimated number of HIV infections, from a few thousands to millions of children and adults are living with HIV/AIDS.

Though so much is talked about AIDS, people still have a feeling that AIDS is something that can happen to others but not to them! By using a medium like film or animation that can communicate through stories, this awareness can be brought and make people believe that this can happen to them also.

What is HIV/AIDS?
AIDS is an acronym for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, a disease in which the body's immune system breaks down. Normally, the immune system fights off infections and certain other diseases. When the system fails, a person with AIDS can develop a variety of life‐threatening illnesses.
 

 

The Film:
The film ‘Mai – A Short animation film on AIDS awareness’ tries to show the quest of an old woman's life after the death of her son with AIDS. The film tries to portray the fear and misconceptions related with AIDS victims and the outlook of people towards them and their family. Animation as a medium is used for the film to take out the specific-ness of the case of the old woman and make it abstract and universal in a sense, which everyone could relate to. Through this film a small effort is made to portray the pain and trauma that AIDS creates.

Different concepts explored were:
Concept 1: Make a documentary on Old - age homes.
Concept 2: Make a fiction film with AIDS related case‐studies.
Concept 3: Make a documentary on AIDS.

Final Concept:
The final concept is a mixture of two concepts; making a fiction film which is shot in a documentary form.

Through this project, an attempt is made to bring out the essence of a sketch to the film by using sketching as a style to animate. The final film is a blend of different types of sketching: From rough sketch to detailed sketch and finally animated to real sound recorded during interviews.

Case Study Downloads:
Mai - A Short Film on AIDS Awareness - pdf