I Am Because We Are

The documentary looks at children in Malawi orphaned by the AIDS epidemic. More than a million children there lost their parents to it. The children tell their stories in their own words. The film sets out the difficulties of living in extreme poverty. It began when a Malawian businesswoman called Madonna and asked her for help. The director travelled to the country again and again over two years. Madonna wrote the script, narrated it and produced it. Figures including Desmond Tutu and Bill Clinton speak to the camera. The documentary is built as an advocacy film. It calls on the audience to act. It does not open the remedies it proposes to debate. The narrator never appears on screen and exists as a voice. Critics said that this framing pushes the country into the background. The same criticism points to a saviour’s point of view. The footage still shows what the epidemic costs the children. Madonna and Desmond Tutu appear in the eighty six minute documentary. It is an American production Nathan Rissman finished in 2008.