DOIN’ MY DRUGS: Can Songs Save The World?
Himself diagnosed as HIV positive from birth, famed Zambian/Danish pop star Thomas Muchimba Buttenschøn experienced tragedy in his childhood after his mother and father both succumbed to HIV/AIDS. Nearly condemned to lose his own life when he was only 13, Buttenschøn finally recovered thanks to antiretroviral (ARV) treatment.
While Buttenschøn has been a successful musician and family man, he’s used his musical talents to help encourage Zambia’s HIV-affected population receive the critical treatment they need despite their fear of social ridicule. Operated by Buttenschøn’s Muchimba Music Foundation, the singer’s ongoing “Test For Tickets” drive offers fans free tickets to his live concerts in exchange for their commitment to receive HIV testing.
Buttenschøn’s mission is examined in the new documentary feature film Doin’ My Drugs, produced and directed by Tyler Q. Rosen and featuring a powerful soundtrack starring Buttenschøn and some of Zambia’s most acclaimed musicians/activists: St. Maiko and Mwiza Zulu (the Zulu family), Brian Bwembya, John Chiti, Danny Kaya and B-Flow.
Having recently screened on December 1st, 2019 — World AIDS Day — in Beijing, China, Doin’ My Drugs will be released to wider audiences in 2020, accompanied by the film’s titular album which includes tracks performed by the aforementioned artists.
While the United States and other developed countries have all but diminished the HIV/AIDS virus, the disease has persisted in Zambia for two troubling reasons: the tendency of civil society to look down upon those affected by the virus, and the resulting reluctance of people to get tested for it despite the Zambian government offering free treatment.
As Rosen began filming Doin’ My Drugs, he found that the story he originally aimed to tell — that of a man who uses music to make a difference in his home nation — evolved into a story about Zambia’s continuing battle to save its population from the deadly impact of a disease that’s been all but curtailed elsewhere around the world.
Preaching the life-saving value of today’s advanced medical treatment, Doin’ My Drugs is a project that Rosen and Buttenschøn hope will convince more of Zambia’s HIV/AIDS-afflicted citizens to finally take the first step towards a healthy and prosperous life.
CH: Doin’ My Drugs premiered a work-in-progress cut of the film at the 2018 Slamdance Film Festival. What were your memories of that experience like?
Tyler Q. Rosen (producer/director, Doin’ My Drugs): That screening turned out to be a pivotal moment for us when we realized that we had a potentially very special story that people really seem to be reacting to. That screening helped us solve a few problems we were having with the picture at that time. It also opened quite a few doors for us as we met some really great folks who have helped us along the way since.
CH: What (and/or who) inspired you to make Doin’ My Drugs?
Rosen: I was inspired initially by Thomas and his music. He’s such a great guy and I’ve always enjoyed his songwriting, but it wasn’t until we were on the ground in Zambia that I realized that I was really making a film for Zambia, (and) for the Zambians. It’s the Zambians now who have provided most of my inspiration lately.
CH: What was the research process like for this film?
Rosen: To be honest with you, it was less about research and more about field testing, if you will. We were just shooting a “rock doc” in the beginning. Then the Zambians began to tell us their story and the story of Zambia and HIV and AIDS. So then, of course, we started digging in and researching and learning, but in the beginning, we did not set out to make an HIV-awareness film. We just wanted to shoot a music documentary about a songwriter returning home.
CH: How and when did you first become aware of Thomas, his personal story and his continuing efforts to fight HIV/AIDS in Zambia and the stigma that surrounds it in that country?
Rosen: Thomas and I were just good friends for a long time before we decided to make this film. I originally had met Thomas on a small island in Indonesia called Gili Trawangan. I was there diving the local reefs and Thomas was there writing an album.
It wasn’t until later that I learned that Thomas was actually there to escape the press in Denmark which had just outed him publicly about his HIV status. (That was) a pinnacle moment in his life that I think really affected him. I think he was hiding. He didn’t want to be in the spotlight at that time.
I had no idea that my old friend had HIV or any of that. He was just my buddy. He was the one who asked me if I was interested in shooting a music film with him in Zambia. It wasn’t until I began Googling him in my initial research for the short film we planned to shoot that I learned of his situation. It was then that I began cultivating the shoot and the story around his story.
There was this initial phase of the film when Thomas didn’t know that I knew about his HIV status and we had never discussed it. At that point, I already knew we were making a film about HIV. I think Thomas, in his heart, initially just wanted to make a film about music. You know, he’s a musician. That’s what defines Thomas in a lot of ways. He’s a musician. He’s not the guy with HIV. He’s a musician first and that’s how he sees it.
It wasn’t until we started hearing the stories from real life Zambians and started experiencing the culture together down there that I think we both started realizing that we were working on something bigger than we originally had planned. Eventually, Thomas let me know about his status and I told him that I had actually just found out only recently by Googling him. It was a crazy way it unfolded for us in the beginning.
CH: In talking to Thomas, plus the other major figures in the film (“St. Maiko” Zulu, John Chiti, Danny Kaya and B-Flow), what were some of the most fascinating and disturbing things you learned from them about the crisis of AIDS in Zambia?
Rosen: Just the sheer death toll that this epidemic has exact on the community down there. It’s just staggering. So many families and family members affected. (It’s) a truly horrifying experience for them all. This really made my heart bleed for them, and for Zambia. HIV and AIDS has just ripped through the fabric of that community down there. Initially, it was this new disease that just popped up out of nowhere and started wiping people out and the doctors hadn’t yet figured out how to control the problem.
Now it’s a disease that’s being allowed to fester out of pure ignorance of (the) fear and stigma that was rightfully instilled into the people by the traumatic initial grip the disease had over Zambia. But today it’s a manageable condition, and the Zambians need to learn this so they can deal with it. It’s actually quite simple now. We just have to calm the nerves of the community and get them on board with our program.
CH: How did your conversations with them help to give you a greater understanding of this crisis?
Rosen: The entire artistic community in Zambia is very vibrant. All of the musicians in our film are so articulate and compassionate. They really taught us so much about what’s happening down there and about how they’ve been trying to fight the ills of society down there, through their own music.
I think in a lot of ways they were actually the ones who showed Thomas how to use his music as a tool. I feel like it was an education for him. These musicians down (in) Zed aren’t just singing to hear their own voices or to entertain. They’re really trying to educate through song. It’s so incredible to see. Like Maiko Zulu said to me once, “no revolution is ever won without artists.”
CH: Besides the interviews, what was the production process like?
Rosen: (It was grueling) and extremely challenging. Zambia, in general, can be an extremely challenging place to work. It’s a chill society and a great people, but there are challenges every day. Throw in a film shoot on top of the daily challenges of life down there and it becomes quite a task. It was my greatest intent to make the most cinematic and situational film possible and so I was constantly just trying to get all of these guys in the room together to just jam and talk and out of that, I was trying to craft a film.
There were plenty of sessions when we didn’t really get what we needed and so we’d just do it again. Meet up again. Have another jam session. I think in the end, this process rewarded us as we were eventually able to capture some really fascinating moments and comments that came out in passing. And the music! The jam sessions these guys had really produced some amazing music, and we were able to capture so much of that. That was incredible!
CH: What were your memories of filming in Zambia, and of seeing the way AIDS had impacted the country and its citizens?
Rosen: I (have) nothing but pure love for the country of Zambia and its people. It’s a fantastic country, one of only a few in Africa who had a bloodless handover of power from the colonial English. They are just a really peaceful and creative people. I have fond memories of filming there, although it was an incredible struggle as well. We often had a very small crew and so, of course, it was tough at times.
In terms of seeing how AIDS has impacted Zambia, it’s just been horrific. (It’s) a terrible disease that killed so many people; an entire generation, honestly. You don’t have to look any further than the musical history of Zambia and you can see that entire musical genres were wiped out due to HIV/AIDS deaths. Research Zamrock. It’s this whole jam garage band genre that Zambia had in the 70’s and 80’s, and entire bands were just wiped out when 4 of the 5 band members died of AIDS. Crazy!
Just put yourself in that place and imagine (AIDS) as (a) new disease that no one knows where it’s coming from and how it’s being contracted. (Imagine it) just ripping through your community, killing members of your family and friends and loved ones. It must have been truly horrifying. It was. They’ve told me it was.
CH: With HIV/AIDS seemingly viewed in Western countries as a thing of the past, how is Doin’ My Drugs and your work with Buttenschøn’s Muchimba Music Foundation helping to boost awareness of the disease in the West and in African nations — including Zambia?
Rosen: Well, it’s still to be seen (how much) impact our film will have as we haven’t yet had the opportunity to release it, but with MMF, we have seen staggeringly impressive results. Through our foundation and our test-for-ticket campaign, we have tested over 11,100+ people and enrolled thousands into patient care treatment programs. What we do is we offer a one-day concert, like a festival, and we recruit and book the biggest acts in the land.
We then run a 3 or 4 week testing campaign within the community, setting up testing centers at schools, at malls and other gathering places, and we test. We offer a free ticket to a concert that normally would probably be out of reach from most people within the community, by just trading it for a test. It’s a very direct program that allows us to help people. We immediately can identify those within the community who need help the most and we help them.
After they’ve received counseling and have come to terms with the actualities that HIV infection is merely a manageable condition at this point, they come to the concert, they have fun and they see Thomas perform. I think they start to realize that the sky isn’t falling and that this HIV thing is under control now.
CH: Buttenschøn, Zulu, Kaya and B-Flow are also part of the film’s soundtrack. How will that album, and its songs, serve as an extension of Doin’ My Drugs’ public outreach and charitable efforts?
Rosen: It’s all about the music. Music touches people and reaches even those who cannot read or those who cannot afford connections to television or the Internet, etc. It’s very easy and affordable to hear a song. Thomas has written this entire album as a way of reaching and teaching people, especially those who need it most.
CH: What do you hope people take away from seeing this film?
Rosen: We want to drive down the rates of HIV infection in Zambia and beyond, maybe (in) the whole continent of Africa. I just want as many Africans as possible to see this film and know that HIV is a manageable condition now, and together we can truly and finally stamp this thing out.
For more information about Doin’ My Drugs, visit the film’s web site:
Find out more about the work of The Muchimba Music Foundation here:
