'Lovesick', documentary on love between HIV+ singles, screened at MAMI
'Lovesick', the highly acclaimed documentary about two HIV+ singles finding true love in each other through a "matchmaking" doctor premiered at the JIO MAMI Mumbai Film Festival yesterday. Directed by Ann S Kim and Priya Giri Desai, 'Lovesick' is a 70-min documentary that follows Dr. Suniti Solomon, who discovered India's first case of HIV and also ran a matchmaking service from her Chennai clinic.
Priya was fascinated after reading about Dr. Solomon
The idea to make a movie on Solomon (who also discovered India's first case of HIV way back in 1986) was conceived after Priya read an article about the Padma Shri recipient, after which she asked Ann, "Don't you think it'll make a great movie?"
Director duo already had a good understanding of India
Priya said that her co-director Ann had spent time in India studying and traveling, while she is an Indian American who grew up in California and spent all her summers in Bengaluru. Therefore, she said they both had an understanding of India. "We thought let's go to India and connect with the doctor," Priya said after the premiere.
Duo traveled over all India to find HIV+ couples
The duo began filming in 2008 and finished the film in 2013, after which it took them nearly four years to edit nearly 250 hours of footage. "We traveled to all over India to find such couples. We went to Gujarat, rural parts of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. We talked to a dozen of HIV+ people," Ann said.
Film depicts HIV+ patients' fight against stigma to find love
The film shows Dr. Solomon and her two patients Manu and Karthik as they fight secrecy and stigma while searching for love. "But in our edit when we took advice from people we realized the story was about Dr. Solomon, Karthik, and Manu," Ann said, adding that they still traveled a lot for the stories. 'Lovesick' featured in the 'Discovering India' section of MAMI.
