Common Threads

Memory Served: Sometime between 2004 and 2009, Bangkok, Thailand

Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt won Best Documentary at the Oscars in 1990. When I started expanding my contacts and network as an NGO worker on HIV and AIDS, Common Threads was occasionally mentioned, and not so few, with strong personal recommendations. Especially fondly remembered at lotus ceremonies during AIDS Candlelight Memorials, where Filipinos we have lost to AIDS are remembered, their quilt panels bloomed.

Back then (and I'd argue, as even now), documentaries are hard to find in the local market. I found my first copy of Common Threads among hawkers of pirated DVDs in Bangkok when I attended a conference sponsored by development partners.

I remember bawling while watching and listening to the testimony of the Mandell couple, who spoke about their son, David Jr., who was a person with hemophilia.

Third Sunday of May the world observes the International AIDS Candlelight Memorial.