Premiere: Friday, July 16, 1999, 10pm, on Thirteen/WNET. (Repeat: Sunday, July 18, 1999, 12 midnight.)
This video documentary takes a hard look at a South Bronx community fighting to survive drug abuse, the spread of AIDS, and the indifference of a larger society. Based in a cozy store-front office, the staff of St. Ann's Corner of Harm Reduction works in the streets every day in an effort to stop the spread of AIDS by providing drug users with clean syringes. Needle exchange programs like this one are controversial and, in many states, illegal. This piece challenges viewers to rethink some of the lethal assumptions behind national and local drug policies.
