[1] Narrated by Glenn Close and Will Smith, A Closer Walk features cinematography by Richard D. Young, interviews with the Dalai Lama, Bono, and Kofi Annan, and musical contributions by Annie Lennox, The Neville Brothers, Dido, Eric Clapton, Moby, Geoffrey Oryema, and Sade.

[2] Subjects and storylines encompass the broad spectrum of the global AIDS experience and include people with HIV/AIDS from all walks of life; AIDS children and orphans and those caring for them; doctors, nurses, and social workers; human rights advocates; and prominent scientists, economists, researchers, government leaders, and NGO officials.

For the film, more than 50 women, men, and young people have been interviewed or profiled in the following regions and locations: Uganda, South Africa, Haiti, Switzerland, India, Nepal, Ukraine, Cambodia, and various locations in the United States including New York City, Kansas City, San Francisco, and Cambridge.

Writing for the Gannett News Service, chief film critic Jack Garner gave A Closer Walk his highest rating, calling it a "beautifully told story of suffering that inspires hope and action."

In New Delhi, following the film's India premiere, Rajeshwari Sharma of the Economic Times said that A Closer Walk is "an absolutely brilliant account of the deadliest plague humankind has ever known.