Dear ‘Cover' Cast and Crew, I am writing this letter to impress upon you how important this project is to me, and to share with you my very personal reasons for getting involved in telling this story. Most of you don't know this but a woman in my family recently discovered that she is HIV positive after contracting it from her husband who had been secretly living on the ‘Down Low' and having unprotected sex with other men. They were married for several years and have children together. As you can imagine, she is currently in a state of speechless devastation because everything she believed in and everything that she trusted has been destroyed. To be perfectly frank, my first reaction to this was an emotional and irrational one. I contemplated using violence to take retribution, but then I realized that this would make me no better than him. After weighing the options in my mind, I kept arriving at the same place. I am an artist, first and foremost. Therefore, rather than physically lashing out against this person who has caused my family so much pain, I decided to lash out with my creativity and shed light on an issue that is ravaging families all across this nation. This is what inspired me to move forward with ‘Cover'. I know that each of you have your own professional reasons for joining me on this film. Some of you might even be here for reasons as personal as the pain that affected my family. Whatever it may be that has brought each of us together, it is important to remember that the problem is far greater than anybody realizes. AIDS is still an epidemic throughout the world and in this country Black women are its leading victims. For my family and my community I am choosing to take a stand. I sincerely hope that after reviewing this information all of you, as artists, will choose to stand with me.
God Bless, Bill Duke |