Drama for Life ‘Sex Actually’ Festival

SEX Actually 2012

23 August– 1 September

PLEASE NOTE THAT WE ARE STILL FACING TECHNICAL PROBLEMS AND HAVEN’T RECEIVED SOME APPLICATIONS. PLEASE RESUBMIT YOUR PROPOSAL VIA THE PDF AND FAX IT TO 011 3397601 OR CONTACT Levinia.Jones@wits.ac.za

Our sincere apologies for this inconvenience. Please note that the deadline for applications has been extended to the 21 May. We look forward to receiving your application.

CLICKHEREto download a PDF-version of the proposal form. Please send your application to Levinia.Jones@wits.ac.za or fax to 011 339 7601.

Drama for Life Sex Actually Festival is a unique cross community HIV and AIDS arts education, activist and therapeutic intervention. It is the first of its kind not only in South Africa but on the African continent. The festival is unique in its methodology, implementation and strategy in addressing the AIDS disease and its surrounding themes - sex, sexuality, relationships, culture, gender, human rights and social issues.

The festival is curated in a way that allows arts practitioners and audience members to holistically engage with the subject, to interrogate the complexities of the disease and its themes. The festival accesses communities from the Northern suburbs to the southern, from the East of Johannesburg to the West. It utilizes performing arts in a variety of ways, from inside the theatre, cutting edge street performances, facilitated processes and workshops, to film, music, as well as practical access to information and testing.

These performance interventions are curated with audience, artists and communities in careful consideration. Understanding the diversity which exists in urban landscapes, and speaking to these varying needs, is what makes Sex Actually so unique and successful in its approach.

The use of the arts as the tool for the intervention allows for a creative way to approach a challenging topic. It creates an opportunity for open discussion which is not censored, prescriptive nor didactic. A place in which humanness and vulnerability is acknowledged and supported by trained facilitators. Stories become about the collective and communities cross boundaries which are both actual and subversive. It is at this point that change can and does occur. This is change that is needed to shift the relationship we have to this disease, to shift perception, stigma, and complacency.  The Drama for Life Festival ultimately creates an opportunity to confront that which is feared, to understand it, and thus to respect those who are affected and infected by AIDS.

DFL Festival endeavours to create public and private spaces to engage in open, transparent dialogue about HIV and AIDS, sex, and relationships. To empower communities to take responsibility for HIV and AIDS by building partnerships across communities and organisations.

The festival also creates an opportunity to develop appreciation for the arts. develop social change behaviours through the arts, arts education and arts therapies. To provide a platform were community and professional artists can showcase their work, communicate and network with each other, as well as have space to speak to their work, methodologies and processes.

For further details on Sex Actually Festival, contact DFL Projects Office on +27 11 717-4734/5 or email levinia.jones@wits.ac.za