Actress and singer Sheryl Lee Ralph has produced a short documentary, Unexpected, which focuses on a group less associated with (yet still suffering from) the epidemic of HIV—straight Black women.
Ralph, currently best known for her Emmy award-winning role on Abbott Elementary, produced the documentary, which was released for streaming on Hulu on World AIDs Day, December 1. Unexpected gives viewers an insight into the issues facing Black women with HIV and why they are disproportionately affected. Black women are 11 times more likely to catch HIV than White women and four times more likely than Latina women, according to the CDC.
Director Zeberiah Newman was shocked when he found out about these statistics while working on his first documentary, Right to Try, which also focused on HIV. As reported in People, Newman said,
“I was shocked and alarmed to see that HIV is a very real and active crisis in the South, specifically with Black women. I started asking questions. In my humble opinion, we need to collectively help these women combat the stigma and health disparities around HIV.”
As a gay man, Newman feels it is his moral obligation to share and inform people of this new wave, adding, “We must continue the fight and help our sisters through this crisis.” To get this project off the ground he reached out to those who could support his work, finding Ralph in the process.
The actress has been actively working to combat the disease starting the DIVA Foundation in the ’90s “as a memorial and life-long pledge to the many friends she lost to AIDS while originating her iconic role in Dreamgirls on Broadway.” The organization has since gone on to raise $3.5 million for charity. The actress said of Unexpected,
“So many people around the world have moved away from the conversation around HIV and AIDS. In 40 years, I have seen this narrative around this disease go from that they wanted to call a ‘gay white man’s disease’ to a ‘Black woman’s disease,’ especially the Black woman in the south of the United States. It has become the burden of this group of women to continue to do the work of raising awareness, and that’s exactly what this film does.”
People Magazine
The documentary focuses on Cici Covin, who was a 20-year-old university student when she discovered she was HIV positive. While doing her research into the disease she would now carry with her, she found that the stereotypes that surrounded the illness meant that she didn’t even know she was at risk.
After initially worrying that her life was over and that she would not be able to have kids, Covin is now a thriving mother of two working as a program manager for the Well Project, a non-profit for women living with or vulnerable to the disease.
The documentary premiered at the 2023 Essence Film Festival and went on to win an Award of Excellence at both The Accolade Global Film Competition and The IMPACT Docs Awards. It is now Oscar-qualified in the Documentary Short category.
There are now many days around the year to focus on and discuss the topic of HIV/AIDS, such as the film’s premiere on December 1. There is also National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day on February 7 and National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day on March 10. We can only hope that, through these days and documentaries like these, more awareness can be raised on the issue. It’s important to know that gay men are not the only community at risk, and it’s possible to live a fulfilling and rich life even with this disease.
(via People Magazine, featured image: Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images)
