Join us for a screening of "The Abominable Crime" on Monday, December 8, in Washington, DC, at the 2014 Funders Concerned About AIDS (FCAA) AIDS Philanthropy Summit.
Filmmaker Micah Fink and human rights lawyer Maurice Tomlison, whose story is told in the film, will share their thoughts on homophobia in Jamaica and the relation to HIV rates after the screening. "The Abominable Crime" is a Pulitzer Center-supported award-winning documentary that explores the culture of homophobia in Jamaica through the eyes of gay Jamaicans who are forced to choose between their homeland and their lives after their sexual orientations are exposed.
In announcing details of the two-day 2014 AIDS Philanthropy Summit, organizers state that the gathering begins and ends with "a focus on integration. As we move closer to the endpoints of a number of key milestones, including the Millennium Development Goals and the U.S. National HIV/AIDS Strategy, finding synergies and intersections in funding across issues, among partners and between sectors will be key to address the disparities and injustices that caused a disease to become a pandemic, and which continue to cripple our efforts to end it."
Among other Summit speakers will be Dr. Chris Beyrer from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, one of the Pulitzer Center's Campus Consortium partners.
Fink, the founder of Common Good Productions, is an award-winning producer, director and writer specializing in international affairs, public health, and environmental issues. He is also on the faculty at the Graduate Program in Social Documentary at the School Of Visual Arts in NYC. Fink's work has been recognized with three Emmy nominations, two Cine Golden Eagle Awards, a Silver Screen award, and an International Film and Video Award. He was a Japan Society Fellow in 2008 and a Kaiser Media Health Fellow in 2005.
Tomlinson is a Jamaican lawyer, gay rights activist, and inaugural recipient of the 2012 David Kato Vision and Voice Award. He is a facilitator with LGBTI Aware Caribbean, which provides LGBTI sensitization to Caribbean stakeholders in the AIDS response, such as police and health care providers, and is external counsel for the international NGO, AIDS-Free World, in cases the organization filed challenging anti-gay laws in the Caribbean. Tomlinson also is the claimant in two cases challenging homophobic laws and practices in the Caribbean.
"The Abominable Crime" Screening and Discussion
Monday, December 8, 2014
5:30 pm - 7:00 pm
FHI 360 Conference Center
1825 Connecticut Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20009
The 2014 AIDS Philanthropy Summit runs Monday, December 8 - Tuesday, December 9, 9:00 am – 6:30 pm and 9 am - 5 pm, respectively, at the same venue.
More details available, including a draft agenda and registration details for the two-day summit.