3 Needles (2005)

Director:

Thom Fitzgerald

Writer:

Thom Fitzgerald (writer)

Release Date:

1 December 2006 (Singapore)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Where Despair Prevails, Hope Lives.

Plot:

A three-paneled look at the worldwide AIDS crisis: in Montreal, a porn actor (Ashmore) schemes to pass his mandatory blood test; a young nun (Sevigny) makes a personal sacrifice for the benefit of a South African village; in rural China, a black market operative (Liu) posing as a goverment-sanctioned blood drawer jeopardizes an entire village's safety. |

Plot Keywords:

Nun | China | AIDS | Montreal | Porn Star

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Mabel Adams	...	Nahmnru, the African Grandmother
Asckt	...	Tea Picker
Shawn Ashmore	...	Denys, the Porn Actor
Caroline Aspirot	...	Stripper
Nontombi Bovana	...	Grandchild
Rob Burns	...	Broker
Stockard Channing	...	Olive Cowie, the Porn Actor's Mother
Chin Han	...	Soldier Xuan
Tanabadee Chokpikultong	...	Tong Sam, the Rice Farmer
Yotaka Cheukaew	...	Qi, the Rice Farmer's Daughter (as Yotaka Chorkreaw)
Eric Codana	...	Abakeweta
Catherine Colvey	...	Clara the Novice's Mother (scenes deleted)
Kathryn Costello	...	Tourist
Steven Crowder	...	Depanneur Manager
Douglas Cwaba	...	Hermit

Also Known As:

Three Needles (USA) (alternative spelling)

Runtime:

USA:127 min | Canada:123 min (Toronto International Film Festival) | Canada:125 min (DVD) | Argentina:127 min

Country:

Canada

Language:

Afrikaans | Mandarin | Xhosa | French | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Hong Kong:IIB | Singapore:M18 | Australia:M | USA:Not Rated | Argentina:16 | Singapore:R21 (DVD rating)

Filming Locations:

Canada

Company:

Bigfoot Entertainment

Trivia:

Almost 95% of the Xhosa and Pondo people hired as extras are completely illiterate.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Midnight Movie (2008)

Soundtrack:

The Motion

Three Different Views of Dissemination of AIDS

In China, the unscrupulous pregnant smuggler of blood Jin Ping (Lucy Liu) infects an entire rural village in a province exploring the poor and ignorant people. The poverty associated to the ignorance and greed doom the whole population to the tragic disease for US$ 5.00 per liter of blood.

In Canada, the second rate porn actor Denys (Shawn Ashmore) hides from his director and colleagues that he is HIV positive using the blood of his sick father for the tests required by the production. When his father dies, his mother Olive (Stockard Channing) discovers his former profession and that her son has AIDS. She hires a US$ 2,000,000.00 life insurance; then she infects herself and sells and cashes part of her insurance in advance to have a comfortable life with her son.

In Africa, the nuns Sister Clara (Chloë Sevigny), Sister Hilde Francis (Olympia Dukakis) and Sister Mary John (Sandra Oh) come to a small mission to convert the villagers in the Catholicism. Sister Clara believes their mission is also to help the locals and she self-sacrifices her dignity to get financial support for the community.

"3 Needles" is a well-intentioned movie that discloses three different views of dissemination of AIDS in three panels. In the first one, poverty associated to the ignorance and greed sentences the dwellers of a village; in the second, selfishness and need of money infects at least eight actors and actresses of the porn industry; in the last one, ignorance and lack of resources doom the poor people to the disease. The screenplay is a little confused and flawed, and some of the questions in the Message Board prove it. The first story is tragic and with an ironic conclusion when the dweller questions that he sold his blood for US$ 5.00 and he paid US$ 10.00 for the test. The second one is of a tremendous dark humor, and I do not know whether the intention of the director / writer Thom Fitzgerald is to criticize the earlier cash of life insurance. The last one has an unnecessary tragedy in the end. Nevertheless "3 Needles" is a good, honest and powerful movie about an unpleasant theme with top-notch acting of the cast. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Unidos Pelo Sangue" ("Tied by the Blood")