This is a short film about the global HIV and AIDS response lead by the young generation. Youths and representatives of community networks and health care centers in Cambodia, United States, Mexico, Botswana, Russia and India talk about HIV awareness and prevention.

This film is about the global AIDS situation. The film starts in Europe and the United States and ends up in Zimbabwe and Uganda. It tells about the global disparities of drug access, but also about the successful HIV and AIDS responses of Thailand, Cambodia and Uganda.

This production was made as the opening film for the IV International AIDS Conference in Stockholm in June 1988. It gives a broad representation of the global AIDS situation in the late 1980's, and has a particular focus on social structures, poverty and stigma.

Interview with the Italian Catholic priest Guiseppe Brunetta. He talks in English and Italian about prostitution and AIDS in Milan, and discusses contraceptives and the situation for young people in Italy. He also talks about the future concerning Europe and AIDS.

"AIDS – Metaphor and Reality" is the very first Face of AIDS documentary from 1986, experts as well as people living with HIV and AIDS speak about stigma. The main message of this film is that AIDS is a worldwide issue which concerns everyone regardless of their sexual preferences.