Red Dirt Report - Oklahoma, Andrew W. Griffin

http://www.reddirtreport.com/news.php?id=10092

FILM REVIEW: 'House of Numbers'

By Andrew W. Griffin

Red Dirt Report, editor

Posted: March 24, 2009

OKLAHOMA CITY -- What really is AIDS? What really is HIV? Are the two one in the same thing? And how many people really have the disease? Those are some of the questions raised in a new documentary, called House of Numbers, that is shaking the foundations of HIV/AIDS research.

Directed by documentary filmmaker Brent Leung, House of Numbers, currently on the film festival circuit and expected to appear at the deadCENTER film festival in Oklahoma City in June, features interviews with some of the world's premiere HIV and AIDS researchers as well as victims and their families.

Apparently, testing for AIDS is not as reliable in the Third World, as Leung goes to Johannesburg, South Africa and gets an AIDS test. The tests, the nurse tells Leung, are not foolproof. And as Leung travels to Australia, Europe and other corners of the globe, it's clear that the accepted orthodoxy is not always correct and in fact may be faulty and actually hurting and killing people.

Sure, there is an epidemic of HIV and AIDS in the world, but are those numbers being inflated as it appears?

House of Numbers leaves a lot of unanswered questions, particularly with a subject as scary as AIDS. But with a sane and questioning documentary like House of Numbers, perhaps the scientific world will embrace a paradigm shift and look at HIV/AIDS in a whole new way.