Mozambique wins Manhattan film award

13 Oct, 2009

Alcides Soares, aged 16, has won the best documentary award at the annual Manhattan Short film festival for his film Mozambique about AIDS orphans in the country.

In his film Soares tells his own story of trying to find a new family after losing his parents to AIDS.

The project began when Soares came into contact with American paediatrician and television writer and producer Neal Baer during a photography workshop for AIDS orphans in Maputo. Baer subsequently secured the necessary equipment and funding and, together with film maker Chris Zalla, taught the boy how to film.

The film is a testimony to the hopes and dreams of the millions of African children (around 400,000 in Mozambique alone) who find themselves in Soares