Deepsouth and Lisa Biagiotti

Quaker Hefner

Zach Schwartzman 

Khadijah Lacey

Bradon Skaggs

Journalist and filmmaker Lisa Biagiotti sheds new light on a tired topic in her new documentary “Deepsouth.”

Lisa Biagiotti’s new film, “Deepsouth” focuses on the HIV epidemic affecting the American south.  Biagiotti was driven to investigate this matter when she found shocking statistics about HIV and the south while researching the virus’s ties to Jamaica.  The film ‘Deepsouth” strives to show the reality of living with HIV in a place that has stigmatized it into something uncomfortable and taboo.  Biagiotti interviews people who are closely related to and affected by the virus and allows them to show what it’s really like living with something so many people know so little about.  This film shows us that what we think we know about HIV is inaccurate.  It represents the atypical and unheard of story of living with HIV.

Biagiotti explained that in doing her first independent film she did not know what to expect.  She had to “unlearn” what she initially thought she knew about HIV and those affected. 

Biagiotti explained how people’s lack of awareness and urgency is fueling the HIV epidemic taking place in the “deep south.”  Exploring HIV in this region tells a new story about the virus that people aren’t used to hearing or seeing.  It’s a new and underreported spin on HIV and those living with it. “Things in the south don’t change fast, there is a level of ignorance in the south. Even in state health departments,” Biagiotti said. 

Lisa Biagiotti, independent journalist, shares her tips and tricks using twitter and multimedia to journalism students at Ole Miss.

Lisa Biagiotti shows a clip from her documentary "Deepsouth" explaining that she had to "unlearn" preconceived ideas about HIV/AIDs.