Flickers of Hope in the city of Light
I Am Because We Are, the extraordinary documentary film from director Nathan Rissman and writer/producer Madonna, makes its next festival stop in France.
Cinema Verite’s 2nd International Rendez-vous for Socially Conscious Cinema will host I Am Because We Are on Sunday October 12 in Paris.
The event is a public platform designed to bring together prominent filmmakers, politicians, and opinion leaders to address social issues and generate pressure for growing societal concerns through the medium of film.
The Paris screening of I Am Because We Are will be introduced by Raising Malawi Executive Director Philippe van den Bossche and Raising Malawi Trust Chairman Victoria Keelan.
Malawi is a nation is crisis. Right now, more than one million parentless children languish in Malawi’s streets, villages, and orphanages without proper food, shelter, education, and seemingly without hope.
I Am Because We Are takes an unflinching look beyond these devastating statistics at the desperate lives of Malawian’s most vulnerable citizens, its children. The film asks hard questions, but also explores the real possibility of lasting solutions to Malawi’s humanitarian crisis. Some of the world’s brightest and most compassionate social activists, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, President Bill Clinton, and Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, offer their insight on how a worldwide population is connected to, and ultimately responsible for, ending suffering in the developing world.
I Am Because We Are director Nathan Rissman depicts a country of contrasts. Malawi’s extraordinary beauty and the exuberance of its people are juxtaposed with the horrors of crushing poverty and deadly disease. Madonna’s narration, inspired by her own journal entries, illuminates a very personal journey into the nation known as the ‘warm heart of Africa’.
The film goes quite beyond simply bearing witness to difficulties in the developing world. It is a call to action under the banner of umuntu – we are all inextricably linked and, rich or poor, share a common fate. I am because we are.
After moving audiences at its New York premiere, at Cannes, and in Traverse City, Michigan, I Am Because We Are will inspire another rapt audience this month at the Cinema La Bastille in Paris.
If you are inspired to improve the lives of some of the world’s most vulnerable children, we urge you to lend your support and visit www.raisingmalawi.org today.