In 1998 for World AIDS Day we went to South Africa to shoot.

We had to report on the first triple therapy tests carried out on HIV-positive pregnant women.

After filming in the Sowetos hospital, we had to take images of the city center. In order to ensure our safety, production had appointed an agent who happened to be one-armed.

We turned in the middle of the crowd without any problem and as we left the city in the Van the driver pointed out a car following us.

The agent stops our vehicle and signals to the car which stops near us. I don’t know what he said in Swahili to this group of young people but after a minute their car turned around and drove away.

If we had doubts at the start about the effectiveness of our guard, it was obvious that it had a long arm.

This shoot nevertheless brought its share of emotions and this is due to a merciless illness. The AIDS children in the Johannesburg orphanage in the attached photos are probably all dead.