Yellow Card puts the focus on young men

The youth of Africa are the most vulnerable in the world - About one-third of all HIV-infected people are between 15 and 24 and live in Africa.

Half of all births to African women under the age of 20 are unintended.

Each year, 60% of all HIV infections in the world are people between the ages of 15 and 24

The statistics for African youth are stark. Africa's HIV infection and unwanted teenage pregnancies are graphic pointers to an array of problems affecting adolescents. It is young women who have borne the brunt of these problems. What about the boys?, Is it ever their fault?

Said the Director, John Riber: "Traditionally, these reproductive health issues have been a woman's problem. They carry the baby and bear the burden. We have not taken the traditional approach. Instead, we are talking to young men about their role in child-bearing. There are a lot of surprises in this film - like in life."

Yellow Card takes the seismic issues of sexual health - early child bearing, unsafe sex, unsafe abortion, unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, HIV transmission - and then turns the focus onto a teenage boy about to become a man in a largely patriarchal society.

The dramatic and devastating onset of AIDS has moved the argument onto men. What are they doing about sexual health?

Pathfinder's regional Vice President, Elizabeth Lule, who has been primarily responsible for drumming up funding for the boy story, stressed the point: "Gender-based inequalities persist. Girls frequently do not reach their potential and boys have a false sense of power and domination."

It is this "false sense of power", or Tiyane's refusal and fear of facing up to the fact that he may be a father, which drives the story of Yellow Card. Director John Riber and his co-writer Andrew Whaley deliberately pushed the story to its logical end where the hero Tiyane literally has his baby in his arms. The teenage hero cannot walk away from his responsibilities.

The point Riber wanted to make was that there are "no prescriptions" to matters of sex, whether it is about AIDS or pregnancy or whatever. "Like life, there are no easy answers," Riber said. There are no ready-made solutions to these compelling issues. The film does not lecture young kids, rather we are just trying to give them something to think about, to provoke discussion and debate".

Riber argues that arming young people with knowledge and awareness, provoking them to think, is their best defence. As one of Yellow Card's key researchers, the late Beavan Mutsakani said: "Don't tell them what to do, provoke them into finding answers for themselves."

In this sense, Yellow Card directly confronts young males about the impact of sex and sexuality. The film specifically "promotes young male involvement" in these issues, as Elizabeth Lule has pointed out.