MOLINE, Ill — "We're Still Here: The Past and Present of HIV in Our Country and Community," a documentary created by The Project of the Quad Cities to highlight people in the Quad Cities living with HIV and AIDS, made its debut at the Figge Art Museum on Thursday, Nov. 30.
This documentary tracks the experiences of multiple people impacted by the AIDS epidemic of the 80s and 90s as they learned to live with HIV. It also highlights how the landscape of HIV has changed over the past 40 years.
One of the Quad Cities natives featured in the film is Kent Douglas.
"I'm somebody that was born and raised in the Quad Cities. When I was 18, I got out of here as fast as I could," he said.
Douglas lived in Chicago during the height of the AIDS epidemic, seeing the disease firsthand.
"When they asked me to do the film, I just knew that I had to, because not one of my friends survived — nobody," Douglas said.
Douglas is one of the 1.2 million people still living with HIV in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Health. He hopes by sharing his story, more people will learn about the disease and struggles people might still be facing, such as stigma and mental stress.
"It was definitely the worst thing that ever happened to me in my life, just having it all those years and watching myself deteriorate, and I couldn't even tell my closest friends what was wrong with me," he said.
Another subject in the documentary is Davenport native Kerry Wells, who was living in Florida in 2016 when her health issues became worse.
"I didn't know if I was gonna make it to my next appointment, but at that time, I didn't think I was sick," she said.
She came back to the Quad Cities for help, fighting through double pneumonia and an induced coma with some support.
"Wonderful family, and I have a good network of friends. It was nice, I just didn't have the information," Wells said. "People think that, okay, well, this disease looks like this. It doesn't. You know it's different for everybody. And I want people to know that you can survive, you can thrive, so long as you adhere to your medication schedule."
According to the World Health Organization, towards the end of 2022, there were roughly 39 million people around the world who were diagnosed with HIV. Of that 39 million, roughly 36,000 were recorded by the CDC in 2021, with almost 5,000 of those cases coming from the Midwest.
“When I first started at The Project, I quickly discovered we had very little recorded history about HIV/AIDS in the Quad Cities,” Caitlin Wells, CEO of The Project QC, said. “That history is critical and must be remembered if we ever hope to end the epidemic.”
The documentary will be available on The Project of the Quad Cities website on Dec. 1.
Watch more news, weather and sports on News 8's YouTube channel