Afrikanische Lebenswelten (2): Das filmische Selbstverständnis der AIDS-Waisen von Maputo

Film-Nr.: 432
Vorführungstermin: Samstag, 15. August 2009, 16.20 h (Zweiter Film) [VN43]
Themenschwerpunkt: Afrikanische Lebenswelten (2) | Mozambique

Englischer Titel: Home Is Where You Find It
Originaltitel: Home Is Where You Find It
Deutscher Titel: Zuhause ist dort, wo man es findet.
Herkunft: USA 2009
Laufzeit: 27 min.
Sprachfassung: Portugiesische Originalfassung mit englischen Untertiteln

Regie: Alcides Soares
Produzent: Holly Carter (executive), Neal Baer, Arthur Forney, Christopher Zalla, Peter Jankowski, Dick Wolf
Schnitt: Michael Schweitzer
Kamera: Alcides Soares
Musik: Mike Post
Produktion: BYkids Film, Law and Order SVU, Los Angeles

URL Film-Homepage: http://www.homeiswhereyoufindit.com
Premierenstatus: Internationale Premiere
Bisherige Aufführungen: Silverdocs, Washington (D.C.) USA

Trailer video: http://blip.tv/file/2300113 + http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wCjup1N7sY

Kurzinhalt: Ein 16 Jahre alter AIDS-Waise zeigt uns in seinem Dokumentarfilm, wie er sich eine neue Familie in Maputo (Mosambique) sucht.

Englische Synopsis: A sixteen year old AIDS orphan directs a documentary about finding a new family is Maputo, Mozambique.



Englische Werkbeschreibung: Alcides Soares is a sixteen-year-old AIDS orphan, one of half a million living in Mozambique today. An American television writer (Neal Baer) and movie director (Chris Zalla) gave Alcides a movie camera and taught him how to shoot. The result is a moving chronicle directed by Alcides himself. His journey to find a family and make a new life in a country that has been ravaged by AIDS, is a story repeated millions of times everyday throughout Africa. As Alcides's story unfolds, we meet the orphans of Reencontro, an organization in Moputo that provides these children with bare sustenance. The Reencontro orphans were also taught photography by a group of American and Mozambiquan photographers and provided with still cameras so they could tell their own stories about the impact of AIDS on their lives. Their pictures, sometimes tragic, often hopeful and always honest, appear throughtout 'Home is where you find it' as a reminder that these children's voices must be heard. In telling his story, Alcides finds an elderly woman to live with and, unexpectedly, is reunited with his younger brother whom he hasn't seen in ten years. AIDS tears families apart, but the resilience of children like Alcides can make new families out of tragedy.

Director's Bio: Alcides Soares was seventeen years old when he directed "Home Is Where You Find It." He was chosen by American tv writer and executive producer, Neal Baer (ER, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) and director Christopher Zalla (Sundance award winning "Padre Neustros") to make a film about his life as an AIDS orphan, searching to find a family after his parents have died. Alcides lives in Maputo, Mozambique and is finishing high school. He plans to study filmmaking and architecture in college.

Producer's Bio: Dr. Neal Baer is Executive Producer of the NBC television series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. During his tenure, among the awards the series has won include the Shine Award; People’s Choice Award, the Prism Award, and the Media Access Award, and actors on the show have won four Emmys and the Golden Globe. The series regularly appears among the top ten television dramas in national ratings. Prior to his work on SVU, Dr. Baer was Executive Producer of the NBC series ER. A member of the show’s original staff and a writer and producer on the series for seven seasons, he was nominated for five Emmys as a producer. He also received Emmy nominations for Outstanding Writing in A Drama Series for the episodes “Hell and High Water” and “Whose Appy Now?” For the latter, he also received a Writers' Guild of America nomination. Dr. Baer’s other work includes "Warriors," an episode of China Beach, nominated for a Writers' Guild Award for best episodic drama, and the ABC Afterschool Special “Private Affairs,” which he directed and wrote. The Association of Women in Film and Television selected the program, dealing with sexually transmitted diseases, as the Best Children’s Drama of the Year. He wrote “The Doctor Corps,” a feature film for Twentieth Century Fox; “Outreach,” a pilot for the WB Network, which he also produced; “The Edge,” a pilot for CBS; and “The Beast,” a pilot for NBC. He is presently writing and producing a six-hour mini-series for HBO on the world AIDS pandemic and the plight of AIDS orphans with Sir Elton John executive producing. Dr. Baer graduated from Harvard Medical School and completed his internship in Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital, Los Angeles. He received the Jerry L. Pettis Memorial Scholarship from the American Medical Association as the most outstanding medical student who has contributed to promoting a better understanding of medicine in the media. The American Association for the Advancement of Science selected him as a Mass Media Fellow. Dr. Baer's primary medical interests are in adolescent health. He has written extensively for teens on health issues for Scholastic Magazine, covering such topics as teen pregnancy, AIDS, drug and alcohol abuse, and nutrition. Dr. Baer taught elementary school in Colorado and also worked as a research associate at USC Medical School, where he focused on drug and alcohol abuse prevention. Recently, Dr. Baer co-established the Institute for Photographic Empowerment at USC’s Annenberg School of Communications, which links photographic story-telling projects around the world and makes that work available to NGOs and policymakers. He has worked in South Africa and Mozambique since 2006, teaching photography to mothers with HIV and to AIDS orphans so that they can tell the world their own stories. Dr. Baer graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in Political Science from Colorado College. He holds master’s degrees from Harvard Graduate School of Education and from Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in Sociology. Before working in television, he spent a year at the American Film Institute as a directing fellow. In 2000, he received an honorary Doctor of Laws from Colorado College. Dr. Baer serves on the boards of many organizations related to health care, including the Venice Family Clinic (the largest free clinic in the U.S.), RAND Health, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Children Now, and the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (NOFAS). He is a trustee of the Writers Guild of America Health and Pension Fund, a member of the Board of Associates at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, a trustee of Colorado College and an elected member to Harvard University’s alumni board. He is also Co-Chair of the CDC and Gates Foundation-supported, Hollywood Health and Society. Dr. Baer received the Valentine Davies Award in 2004 from the Writers Guild of America, West for “public service efforts in both the entertainment industry and the community at large, bringing dignity to and raising the standard for writers everywhere.” In 2003 he received the Special Individual Achievement Award from the Media Project; the Leadership Award from NOFAS; the Loop Award from Lupus LA for educating the public about lupus and autoimmune diseases; the Socially Responsible Medicine Award from Physicians for Social Responsibility for “accomplishment in crafting compelling health messages;” and the Feminist Majority Foundation for promoting global woman’s rights on television. Dr. Baer lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Gerrie Smith, and his son Caleb, 18, who will be attending Williams College in the fall.

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