Thriving

Role: Lead Artist, Producer, Lead Writer, Art Direction, and Facilitator

Thriving is an inspiring and emotional piece of advocacy. The film features a performance poem co-written by seven women living with HIV and Fleassy Malay. Thriving speaks of the importance of visibility and inclusion for women with HIV.

The aim of Thriving is to raise awareness of  the experiences of women living with HIV and the HIV-related stigma they face as well as the global U=U message (Undetectable equals Untransmittable). U=U is based on more than 20 years of scientific evidence that a person with HIV who is on antiretroviral treatment and has an undetectable viral load, can not transmit HIV sexually.

Thriving was released globally online in 2022 and then screened in Fed Square for World Aids Day in 2023.

The project was a result of am innitial request for Fleassy Malay to write a piece that explored Quality of Life for people living with HIV. Fleassy’s commitment to ethical storytelling lead the project into a codesign process where Fleassy facilitated a full day writers workshop with 13 women living with HIV. Their reflections and writing were then taken home by the lead artist and woven into the story that would become the poem featured in Thriving. Once writen, the video clip was filmed in collaboration with a group of Seven women living with HIV. 

Videography: Ryan Adams