MaHaWam: Michelle Pfeiffer Lyric Video

MAHWAM Music Video: Michelle Pfeiffer

Project Statement:

" In the 30-plus years since the HIV/AIDS pandemic swept across the United States and took hold of public discourse, there are still more than 30 million people living with the virus, and the vicious stigma surrounding those living with HIV and AIDS still persists.

“Michelle Pfieffer,” tackles the complex emotional trauma that came when they contracted the human immunodeficiency virus. Mahawam told Billboard that they want this song to be their “unofficial Black entry to the AIDS Quilt songbook canon,” in order to try and help others struggling with their diagnosis and the pain that comes with it. "

- (abridged quote from Stephan Daw's article on the Video for Billboard Pride)

Full Text: https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/pride/8495639/mahawam-hiv-michelle-pfeiffer-video-premiere

Director & Animator: Nick Francis, Videographer & Editor: Amira Hadiya, Director of Photography: Andrew Kodama

Project Process:

Michelle Pfeiffer was filmed in a confined studio using ‘Guerilla/Documentary’ style shots, creating a sense of intimacy and anxiety in our raw film - this process required an enormous amount of work had to be done in preparing the footage. Allowing the raw visuals room to breathe before we brought in the animation, lyrics, and domineering political and emotional context. Visually communicating the anxieties and sometimes joys of chronic pain’s relationship to the creative process is an arduous process, often with more newfound questions than discovered answers. It is not often we get to speak our quiet truth.