Why Us? Left Behind and Dying” is the story about a group of inner-city African-American high school students who are in search of why HIV/AIDS so disproportionately impacts Africans and African-Americans more than any other group in the world. It takes courage: there is a terrible stigma around HIV in the black community.

For once, these teenagers wanted to be the researchers; not just the researched. So the filmmakers became facilitators and teachers; stepping back and allowing the teens to ask their own questions of heterosexuals, homosexuals, intravenous drug users, public health experts and scientists.

Our filmmaking goal was to demonstrate how HIV flourishes in the intersection between science, race and culture in the black community, and to do it through the narrative voice of young inner-city African-Americans.

Our research goal was to find out if participating in the making of this film would prompt the teens to be tested for HIV and encourage those who were sexually active to practice safe sex.