Filmmaker Spike Jonze and documentarian Lance Bangs have evidently reunited for a documentary on the AIDS epidemic in Africa titled “The Lazarus Effect,” funded by Bono and Bobby Shriver’s (Red) initiative.
The 30-minute film follows the stories of four HIV+ sufferers in Zambia as they go through the transformative life-saving antiretroviral medicine, which costs a mere 40 cents a day but helps bring sufferers of the disease back to life. The feature was shot last year on three separate trips to Africa by Bangs, adamant on letting “the people speak for themselves, rather than have a lot of earnest Western talking heads.” Bangs is directing the picture with Jonze only executive producing due to his commitment to “Where The Wild Things Are.”
“I had lost friends and teachers to Aids and Aids-related illnesses, but at least in the West the drugs are available,” Bangs explained. “In Africa I was shocked at how skeletal our interviewees’ faces were, how their eyes bulged from their sockets. After just a few months on their drugs they were transformed. They were surprised we came back, that we were not using them, as one woman put it, as ‘props’.”
Jonze’s involvement stems from his own misconception about the fight against the disease in Africa, which he admits he “didn’t realize they were succeeding” and thought “Aids and Africa meant people dying.”
Meanwhile, the director also went on to address the recent criticism lobbied at him by fellow filmmaker Vincent Gallo in a candid interview with Hikari Takano. Jonze cheekily noted that “if he said it, it has to be true” and added that it was in fact Gallo who gave him the moniker “Spike Jonze” in his earlier days — a name which now seemingly holds a different meaning in light of Gallo’s comments.
“The Lazarus Effect” premieres on HBO, Youtube and Channel 4 in the U.K. on May 24th.