Acclaimed director Spike Jonze is behind a documentary on a Bono-backed project helping Aids sufferers in Africa. He talks to Jacqueline Smith
Spike Jonze seems an unlikely figure to be sharing soapbox space with Bono.
After all, as a producer, the New Yorker's latest film is Jackass 3D (he co-created the original show) and he directed last year's Where The Wild Things Are.
The 41-year-old film-maker started out as a pop culture multi-tasker, founding BMX and skateboard magazines in between making some of the best known videos of the 90s for acts like the Beastie Boys, R.E.M., Fatboy Slim and Bjork - though never U2.
His feature debut was the mind-bending Being John Malkovich (1999) for which he was Oscar-nominated, before delivering the similarly puzzling Adaptation three years later.
A diverse CV, but hardly one of someone who is now part of a campaign to reduce the 3800-a-day death toll from Aids in sub-Saharan Africa.
But the anti-Aids organisation Red - which Bono co-founded as a charitable private sector partnership with some major global brands - came knocking on Jonze's door.
They presented him with powerful images proving that giving African nations free access to pharmaceuticals was giving those who had been waiting for death a new lease on life.
"It was the first time it actually hit me that there was actually something being done. There's all this talk of Aids in Africa but here was the fact that they were saving lives," Jonze says.
And so, he helped them produce the HBO documentary The Lazarus Effect about their work, which screens here next week on December 1, World Aids Day.
U2 has also chosen to give proceeds from its premium Red Zone ticket sales at its Auckland concerts to the charity Red. Jonze says he is moved by the connection and that Bono's dedication to the Aids effort in Africa has always struck a chord.
"I remember back in the 90s, rock stars would be talking about some cause they were into and they didn't really get it. I don't know Bono that well - I've only met him a couple of times - but watching what he is doing from afar, [you can see] it's not just some celebrity talking about a cause, he actually does the work and knows what he is talking about, I think that's the thing I realise. Doing things like this is actually doing it, not just talking about it."
Unfortunately, Jonze was still madly finishing Where The Wild Things Are when he was due to go to Africa to film the documentary, so it was his long-time collaborator Lance Bangs who travelled back and forth as the director, while Jonze worked on the documentary footage from the States.
They both decided the story must be entirely told by Zambian people who had lived through Aids - suddenly they were no longer statistics on a map, Jonze says.
At the heart of the film is Constance Mudenda, who Jonze affectionately refers to as Connie. She lost all her children to Aids before Red helped bring down the cost of ARV drugs. Now she is helping save the lives of other HIV-positive Zambians.
"For me it's hard not to be overwhelmed by many emotions; anger is probably one of them. But obviously I don't live in the middle of it like she does, I can't imagine what it feels like. I'm astounded at how much she is able to give, considering all she has been through," Jonze says.
Bangs travelled to Zambia three times to take before-and-after footage of the Aids victims taking ARV medication.
The film features a young mother, Concillia, who kicked her way back to life from the brink of death, a father, Paul Nsangu, and an 11-year-old girl, Bwayla, who recovers from her disease so she can play with her friends again. Unfortunately, she passed away after the completion of the documentary from Aids-related complications - Jonze chokes up when asked about it.
"It doesn't compare [to my previous film projects] because they are not characters, they are people who are alive and that makes it that much more affecting to work on. You feel responsible, and want to represent that as effectively as possible," he says.
Most charities Jonze has worked with in the past have been closer to home, such as a youth mentoring programme he is currently involved with called 826 National. He says he is often approached by people who want him to tell their story, but Red's resonated with him.
"I think it was just telling a story of hope. Honestly I don't think I really thought about it, but Africa is a far-away place, you hear of the number of people who have Aids and are dying of Aids so in my head I think there was an unconscious thought that Aids in Africa is hopeless. I realised it wasn't."
LOWDOWN
Who: Spike Jonze
What: Director of last year's Where The Wild Things Are as well as Being John Malkovich, has also put his name to The Lazarus Effect, a documentary about the charity Red's efforts to reduce Aids in Zambia
When and where: World Aids Day, Wednesday December 1, 8pm, Maori Television
More info and donations: www.joinred.com
-TimeOut
