'Hand Held', a documentary about Romania's orphans from the 90s will be screened in Bucharest on December 4, at the Romanian National Art Museum . The documentary, directed by Don Hahn presents the story of photojournalist Michael Carroll, who came to Romania in 1990 and discovered the HIV-infected orphans in Romania. Hahn and Caroll will attend the screening in Bucharest.

The entry fee will be of RON 100 and will be donated to the Fundatia Inocenti. Students will pay RON 30.  The documentary will also be screened in premiere at a charitable gala for disabled children on December 2 in Bistrita. (Watch the documentary trailer below.)

Don Hahn is a two-time Academy Award-nominated filmmaker from the US. The Hand Held documentary was shot in Boston, Bucharest and Bistrita for nearly two years.  Mike Carroll was one of the first photographers to travel to Romania after the fall of the communist regime in 1989. His photographs and stories of the pediatric AIDS epidemic in Romania ran in the Boston Globe and New York Times and opened the eyes of the western world to the plight of the Romanian children. For his article in the Boston Globe, Carroll got a Pulitzer prize nomination.

Carroll came to Romania after hooking up with a group, including members of the New York Hospital/Cornell Medical Center, that was looking into the plight of Romanian orphans and the nation’s pediatric AIDS epidemic.  His photographs opened the eyes of the world and helped create Romanian Children’s Relief, a Southboro charity, with Carroll president, working to support Romanian children and families in need and prevent child abandonment in partnership with its Romanian partner Fundatia Inocenti.

editor@romania-insider.com