Filmmaking as HIV activism

Anthony L. Williams calls himself an edutainer—a creator of films and series that both entertain and educate. That was his goal with “Thicker Than Blood,” now having its 10th anniversary re-release in time for Southern HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, August 20.

The feature-length film, written, directed and executive-produced by Williams, delves into identity, homophobia and HIV—including who can get HIV and how, and what life is like with the virus.

The story centers on one Black family in the South, gathering to celebrate because the oldest son, Richard Jr. (Tony Bravado), has become a partner in his law firm. Richard is straight; his younger brother, healthcare worker Jordan (Kevin Boles Jr., also known as KevinGlen), is gay and hasn’t been home for three years. Their father (Thom McKinney) is deeply homophobic, their mother (Christina Smith) a bit less so. Richard’s fiancée, Selena (Destiny Diamond McNeill), is welcomed by the family; Jordan’s mixed-race boyfriend, Cameron (Florencio Martinez), shows up unexpectedly and gets a more tepid reception. During the course of the day, truths are told, secrets revealed and some lessons learned, some not.

The film came about in 2016, when Williams, living in North Carolina at the time, was approached by the state’s Department of Health and Human Services, which had grant funds that it needed to spend before the grant period ended. He “soft-pitched” department officials an idea for a movie to reach audiences with information about HIV, PrEP and related issues. They commissioned a script from him, which they loved and pushed into production, he says. It was filmed in 11 days in North Carolina, but the setting isn’t identified, so it could be any Southern town.

“What it boiled down to for me as an artist and wanting to produce ‘Thicker Than Blood’ was to be able to find different ways to connect with people and to meet them where they are,” he says. “A lot of people are not necessarily out in the spaces where those organizations want to advertise or push resources, and so a lot of people, especially in North Carolina, didn’t have any idea that a lot of those resources existed for HIV, particularly healthcare for HIV and AIDS.” 

The film ended up touring for seven years, screening at film festivals, in healthcare spaces, for faith groups, for Black organizations and more. It won several festival awards, but most important, it got its message across, Williams says. “I truly believe that ‘Thicker Than Blood’ accomplished what I set out to do,” he says.

“I have had people come up to me afterward and say a variety of things,” he explains. “Number one, this movie encouraged people to go get tested. It taught them about PrEP and how to protect themselves from contracting [HIV], as well as, if they were living with HIV, how to become undetectable so that they don’t transmit it to anyone else.”

“I’ve had people share with me that after watching this film, they have mended broken relationships with family members,” he adds. “Particularly one Black queer gentleman who hadn’t spoken to his dad in like five years or something, and he said after watching the movie, it encouraged him to reach out. And then when I had a subsequent conversation with him, he said that he was actually getting ready to hop in the car to drive up to Arkansas to see his dad for the first time in years.”

The need for information now is just as great, Williams says, and that’s why he’s re-releasing the film, which is available on Amazon Prime and through Kinema.com. Kinema also  allows organizations and individuals to host screenings. Other platforms will be added later, he says. The need is especially great in the South, which has a higher proportion of HIV cases and lower PrEP uptake than other regions, but the message can benefit Americans everywhere, he says.

“In some ways, I find that we’re still very much in the same position that we were 10 years ago, and in some instances, even having backpedaled in some of the advances that we had made years and years ago, advances in outreach, advances in medication and just the knowledge around HIV,” he says.

He hopes to “reintroduce the conversation on topics of HIV healthcare and protecting yourself in the best way possible, especially when there now is a surge in new HIV rates [in certain areas] due to the rollback in healthcare efforts with this administration,” he adds.

He also notes the need for outreach to specific communities, such as Black and Brown people. When he screened “Thicker Than Blood” in North Carolina, he found white audiences were well-informed about PrEP and likely to be on it, but Black viewers less so. In Chicago, where he lives now, the situation is somewhat better, but there’s still a racial divide when it comes to PrEP use, he says. There are various reasons for this, but for one thing, the initial marketing of PrEP was aimed primarily at white gay men, Williams says.

Williams, who is pansexual, is HIV-negative, but he has many friends and acquaintances who are living with HIV, and he made an earlier film that centered on the impact of HIV on people’s lives.

In 2013, he wrote and directed “Absolutely Positive,” about four individuals from different backgrounds and age groups who decide to get tested for HIV. The short film depicts their internal monologues as they then anxiously await their results and cope with what follows. Acclaim for the film earned Williams an invitation to the White House and the National HIV/AIDS Strategy Initiative Conference.

He stepped away from HIV-specific work for a time, but now he’s in pre-production for a sequel to “Thicker Than Blood,” with the same cast, and a third installment is in development. “We’re hoping that with reintroducing the first one to audiences, that will continue to open doors to help us move forward with production for the second and third installments,” he says.

Williams didn’t set out to be a writer-director-producer. He first intended to act, and he’s still a working actor, having had roles in “Chicago P.D.” and other TV series, and he continues to audition for the many productions coming out of the Windy City. He spent some time in Los Angeles in 2008, hoping to further his acting career, but was disappointed by the lack of original content coming out of the major studios, which were focused on remakes and comic book franchises. He decided to create his own original content, so he founded and is CEO of Second Glance Productions.

His other credits include associate producer of several docuseries, including “Mysteries Unearthed with Danny Trejo” and “Hazardous History with Henry Winkler.” He also created and stars in “It’s Not You, It’s Me: Chicago,” a series about the intersection of dating and mental health. It “follows three bachelors of color as they decide to get back into dating, but they’re also in therapy to unpack baggage from old relationships, so that way they don’t take it into the new relationships that they’re trying to build,” he says. The first three episodes (of eight) are available to view as incentives through Second Glance’s Seed & Spark campaign to raise funds to complete editing of episode three. Episodes four through eight have been filmed and await editing. The series will eventually make the film festival circuit before becoming widely available.

In the meantime, Williams is excited about getting the message of “Thicker Than Blood” to more viewers. So far, he says, it’s helped provide both education and entertainment to audiences, and disabused them of some preconceived notions about HIV. “I really am just so grateful that it has made that type of impact,” he says.