“It’s My Life” may
come across as a very basic documentary but when paired alongside Welcome to Our HIllbrow a new artistic
vision can be created. The main
protagonist of the documentary is Zackie, a man refusing medicine that can
treat his AIDS virus; he is a dead man walking.
It is not obvious if the narrator of Welcome
to Our HIllbrow is alive or dead either.
These two similarities draw the pieces closer together. Zackie walks a very fine line of life and
death and through a simple documentary opens up a very complex situation.
His resolution to refuse treatment until others who share
his disease but not his fortunate economic status in South Africa is the main
focus of the film. Through Zackie’s
zealous drive to stop pharmaceutical companies from shamelessly profiteering off
of a terrible disease and to educate his government on the benefits of AIDs
fighting drugs, the audience is able to see what a difference there is in
medical care in a first world versus a second world country. As Zackie continuously battles for more of
his fellow South Africans to have access to better medicine we watch him grow
weaker and weaker as the movement grows stronger.
This film captures a struggle that has been going on for
years in South Africa. It shows the wide
gap between the haves and have nots.
Zackie gets interviews from all over the world because of his decision
and it is sickening to think that it only took one middle class man who refused
treatment to finally bring this much attention to the AIDs problem in South
Africa than the hundreds of people dying everyday.
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