Nicholas Snow's Notes From The World: The Band Plays Again In The United Kingdom (With Video)

Writer/Director Lance Nielsen

Nicholas Snow's Notes From The World: The Band Plays Again In The United Kingdom

On his birthday in 1991, Lance Nielsen's closest cousin died of an HIV-related illness at the age of twenty-six. Lance has since become a prolific writer of plays including the HIV/AIDS-themed “Hi, I’m Vince” and his screenplay for the film Jericho’s Walls Are Falling is making its way to the big screen because of the efforts of his UK-based team.

“There haven’t been a great many other films made on the subject of HIV, and those that have been were made quite some time ago,” explained Lance. “And The Band Played On was very much about how the virus came to be and the political failure to stop it. Philadelphia, which is the one most people will remember, primarily covered HIV in the workplace, and the stigma experienced there, loosely based on a real case… Both of these films were made in the 80’s and not only was HIV/AIDS different then but people rarely had to consider back then the issues facing someone who would live with it long term.”

“Jericho covers five years in one man’s life facing HIV and we see how during that time it impacts on him, starting from just before his diagnosis until years later when he has to start medication. Jericho is a straight man, which is a fairly unique perspective,” Lance revealed. “There have been HIV storylines in some TV series before but not where the perspective of the positive individual is the sole focus of the story. It also is as up-to-date from a medical perspective as we can possibly make it.”

The creative team has successfully produced a trailer for use in their fundraising efforts. About how the project came about, Lance explained his HIV/AIDS play was “based on the story of someone I knew who was positive, and became the basis for the storyline for Jericho. Through working on that play I met a number of HIV positive individuals including UK-based Ugandan activist Winne Sanyu-Sseruma who is an inspirational woman…she and I have been best friends ever since.”

In fact, Winnie inspired Lance to become involved with a number of HIV charities for which he frequently conducted creative writing and drama workshops, helping him to establish close friendships with people living with HIV who would not only inspire storylines in his script, but who would work on the film themselves. “Winnie and another activist, Angelina, came down and spoke to all the cast, as did someone I shall refer to as Dave, one of the two people on whom the character of Jericho is based.”

Producer Dan Styles

“Every scene relative to HIV issues in the script is real and actually happened to one or other of the two men upon whom the character of Jericho is based,” stressed Lance. “The issues were updated and changed and we re-modernized the script because the original draft was written in 2003.”

Having experience the death of his cousin, Lance has kept abreast of developments in the treatment of HIV. He explained, “I think everyone found the process of making the trailer for the film very educational. It was interesting to see the views of some of the cast change as a result of the education they got on the subject. I couldn’t believe that we even had one person who thought you could still get HIV from saliva…”

“Jericho is a straight man and the film is told from his perspective,” Lance explained. “As we see his life three months prior to his diagnosis, it is clear he has straight and gay friends and his character also works as an actor, so one can assume he has fairly liberal views. However one of the side storylines is of a character called Speedy who is a young bisexual man who is still finding his sexual identity, and contracted HIV from a sexual assault. Jericho and Speedy become close friends and there are several gay and lesbian characters at the support group, so even though Jericho’s journey is the focus, you certainly see other perspectives in terms of different sexual identities.”

Lance shared that this film is the first of an intended trilogy, the second of which is set primarily in the USA and the third in Africa. “Of course, we have to get this one made first,” Lance said candidly.

Gideon Turner as Jericho

“Gaining people’s trust and enabling HIV positive individuals to feel confident enough to get involved in the project was always going to be a challenge, and one that we took head on from the word go,” said Lance. “We created an environment so mutually supportive that six people on the film disclosed for the first time to the cast, almost all in one go. Two people did it, then suddenly so did others and it was very moving. There were people who didn’t and only I and the casting director knew who they were. We had very strong legally binding non-disclosure agreements in place for all cast and crew, so people knew they could and would be safe if they did.”

“Our challenge now,” continued Lance, “is to try and raise 1.5 million (British pounds, about 2 million dollars) for the rest of the budget. We want to make a film that has as many known names in it as possible with the cast (as they did in And The Band Played On) so it will get as much attention as possible. At the end of the day, you want the younger generation to want to watch the film because they are the ones who want to see it most.”

“When we screened the trailer on World Aids Day in December 1st 2008, we had two events, one in the afternoon which was watched by about two hundred HIV positive individuals and one in the evening where it was mainly actors from the business and their friends…” At the screening for people living with HIV, Lance explained, “The one comment I remember on the Q & A was an African lady who stood up and said ‘My God, this is the film we have been waiting for!’ and whole room erupted into applause!”


Lance and his team are seeking “to stimulate, educate and make people aware of the kind of issues facing those living with HIV today,” he explained. “I want the film to go out to as many schools and colleges in the westernized world than we can get it to, and then I want to make the two sequels which will go further into HIV from a global perspective, still seen from Jericho’s eyes, but touching so many other issues that we didn’t have to get to cover here. I also want people to be moved by an emotional and entertaining story.”

“Ultimately I think in the beginning of the story Jericho’s character lacks direction and purpose and ironically it is through HIV and the way it impacts on his life and people that he meets that probably ultimately gives him that and changes him for the better,” Lance concluded. “If I had to say the film had a primary goal, it would definitely be to reduce stigma.”

To follow and perhaps offer support to this project visit www.jerichoswallsarefalling.com.




Nicholas Snow's Notes From The World

Nicholas Snow

This column presents stories of courage, strength and hope of individuals worldwide who are passionately involved in the struggle for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered civil rights as well as the battle against HIV/AIDS, demonstrating how these issues are inseparable from the overall fight for human rights for everyone. In addition, the column infuses travel and entertainment reporting into the mix to not only celebrate the freedoms that exist for many of us, but to contrast these freedoms against the dark realities of individuals living in more oppressed situations where sometimes their very lives are at risk. More columns...


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