23/8/2007 - 09:21(EST) By Christian Rea Tizcareño

The art of prevention

To help in the fight against AIDS, in January the Mix Film and Video Festival of Sexual Diversity launched the third edition of Postales en Acción, a series of 13 collectable postcards that are to be handed out for free at gay and MSM (for men who have sex with other men) spots and cultural sites such the National Cinema, bookshops and libraries in Mexico City.

Each postcard corresponds to a different month of the year and, using the question and answer format, reflects some myths, concerns and truths surrounding HIV in the homosexual population, such as risks from taking drugs and antiretroviral medications simultaneously, life with a partner, the Ley de Sociedades de Convivencia (Domestic Partnership Law), serodiscordance and physical appearance as a wrongful synonym for health.

Arturo Castelán, producer and author of the preventive campaign, indicated that there is a dramatic tension in the images as Alejandro Cantú, Mexican photographer for the movies Un mundo raro, El cielo dividido and Las lloronas, took them from different movie sequences.

The actors who took part in the project (Fernando Arroyo, Jorge Chávez, Daniel Sisniega, Carlos Fájer and Jorge Luis Moreno) were never afraid, inhibited or self-censured by the possibility of being socially branded as gays and HIV carriers.

“Although most are heterosexual, they did not mind doing fairly romantic scenes as they have had a very positive rapprochement towards the Mix Festival and therefore towards the homosexual community”, commented Castelán.

Postales en Acción, financed by the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, is aimed at gay men between the ages of 18 and 35, who Arturo Castelán invites to “commit themselves to their physical and social health. When something is sick, it affects everything. It has been proven that homophobic, closed and indifferent societies have particularly caused HIV to spread. There lies the importance of the saying ‘information is power’”.

Terra