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"I had the wonderful opportunity to take a documentary film class with DA Pennebaker in my final semester of graduate school at Yale. During that spring of 2003, I spent most of my daylight hours in the DMCA drinking Diet Coke and poring over an editing suite, with a lot of help from Lee Faulkner. The experience inspired me to devote my time after graduation to film-making. I am forever thankful for their help and support!"
After graduating with degrees in Public Health and African Studies in 2003, Amelia received a Fulbright Fellowship to study the effects of mass media communications on AIDS outreach in Haiti. Part of the project involved making a documentary film about youth, sex, and vulnerability to AIDS. She formed a film company, Agence des Jeunes Producteurs (AJP) dedicated to producing AIDS-related educational videos for the Haitian population. Their production team is made up of a group of young people from the slums with a dream to make films, and a small but highly courageous group of HIV+ individuals who are determined to change a society shrouded in fear and silence about AIDS.
Working in Haiti since 2003 has been hard - a coup d'etat and continued gun battles in the city has made their work near impossible. But they don’t give up. Because they believe in the ability to create positive change. And because the film projects create jobs and hope for some of the poorest people in the world, in a country whose unemployment has soared to over 80%.
Amelia is happy to say that the sweat and tears of AJP are paying off - in two years, they have produced five educational videos on AIDS, one CD, and two music videos. Their materials have reached thousands of people across the country, by airing on national television and through a growing network of collaborating organizations in the rural areas. It is an exciting time, and Amelia feels hopeful that AJP will make a big difference in the lives of Haitians in 2006 and beyond!
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