The Brooklyn Borough President Office (BBPO), at the request of Transdiaspora Network, has granted a citation to the renown Cuban filmmaker Pavel Giroud for the good use of the art film art as a social tool to educate the general public about HIV/AIDS and reflect on its complex social issues from a humane approach. As we all know, HIV/AIDS continues to have a negative impact in different geographical regions at a global scale, and still carries with it a great social stigma within several communities in the New York urban area, especially in the Latino and Caribbean communities because of cultural practices that do not allow a more open dialogue about this sexually transmitted disease.

The film “El Acompañante” (The Companion) has not only been praised by various film critics and the jury of several international film festivals around the world, but has also enjoyed public acceptance by moviegoers who have watched the film and have been deeply moved by the intimate human drama portrayed in the film. This film also makes a positive contribution to exploring the complexity of human feelings beyond social stereotypes based on gender, health status and sexual orientation. Through this movie, Pavel Giroud manages to validate love and friendship from a constructive dialogue between characters with different socioeconomic backgrounds, social narratives and personal stories.

Transdiaspora Network’s Board of Directors has also decided to publicly recognize the Cuban filmmaker Pavel Giroud with an extraordinary TDN 2016 Changemaker Award due that his movie “The Companion” can be used as educational material among young people and may assist public health entities as well as community based organizations to expand our awareness strategy within the State of New York’s ongoing campaign to become the first state in the nation to eradicate HIV/AIDS by 2020. “The Companion” proves once again that the arts can be a great cultural ally in the prevention strategy of HIV/AIDS and can help us to improve our culturally-oriented conversation with communities highly impacted by the virus in New York City.

(update – April 11, 2016)

A small ceremony took place during the opening night of the 17th Havana International Film Festival, which was held at the Directors Guild Theatre on April 7, 2016, at the film NY premiere, where Yamilky Crisostomo (BBPO Latino Outreach Community Coordinator) and Ariel Rojas (TDN President/Founder), along with Angela Trenton-Mbonde (UNAIDS Senior Adviser), officially honored Cuban filmmaker Pavel Giroud the BBPO Citation and TDN 2016 Changemaker Award.