This deeply moving film-about keeping a family history alive after the core of the family dies-also explores how HIV/AIDS continues to infect and kill millions of Africans each year. In Uganda alone, there are more than two million orphaned children, most victims of HIV/AIDS. Not only do these innocent children lose their immediate sense of belonging and place in the world, they are also at risk of losing their family roots. "Memory books" are collections of family stories, photos and drawings by Ugandan mothers dying of AIDS, used to speak to their orphaned children of family histories, traditions and values. They are invaluable to children, not only after their mothers have passed, but also as their mothers prepare to die. As children sit with their mothers and assemble their memory books, they gently prepare for the fact of their mothers' death. Memory books help ease these innocent children into an understanding of an imminent and sad reality soon to change their lives forever.
-Sarah Whitehouse

Co-presented with African Medical & Research Foundation.