The Andre Show

Making a video about a supportive-housing program, Beverly Peterson met Vilma and her son Andre, both of whom were living with HIV. Little did Peterson realize how intimately involved she and her husband would become with the twosome, up to and including adopting Andre after Vilma's death. This video poignantly chronicles the emotional and physical complexities surrounding the last years of Andre's life, both before and after his adoption. Partially through Andre's own drawings and self-produced video snippets, we come to know and admire the strong-willed, lively pre-teen, his parents, and his friends and classmates. As a tribute to Andre, so "fiercely determined to take control of his destiny and create the family he had always wanted," Peterson's video, though expensive and home-movie-ish, succeeds admirably and deserves a place in well-funded libraries that collect in this area. Aud: C, P. (K. Glaser)