Matthew Puccini Explores What Getting Tested For HIV Feels Like

‘The Mess He Made’ is a short-film by American filmmaker Matthew Puccini that pictures the 15 minutes after Judes gets his finger pricked for a sample of blood. If words are not much present in this piece, images, sounds and music speak volumes, exploring the feelings many people experience while getting tested for HIV. Indeed, despite recent progress in medicine, the fear of the stigma that comes with a positive result is hard to discard.

However, getting tested for HIV is more necessary than ever, with infections rising worldwide. We are also taking this time to remind you that a seropositive person on medication will have a viral charge too low to infect anybody else! So here is your reminder to protect yourself, get tested and stop contributing to the stigma seropositive people face - this starts by not using expressions such as ‘I am clean’ to say that you are seronegative.

PS: we have not forgotten about the movie, you can watch it down below!