Launch of a moving, short documentary film about a family affected by HIV

The Dream is a short documentary in which a married Dutch couple, affected by HIV, talk about their experiences of wanting, having and loving their children. Piet and Mirjam share their fears and their dreams for the future, offering an insight into the complexity and power of human relationships under pressure. This remarkable couple show how love and dreams can play such a vital role in human strength and the desire for new beginnings.

“HIV has reminded this family about how precious
life and love are - how facing up to sickness and death is also an important part of life for all of us. It is one of the most moving films I have ever seen.”
Alice Welbourn - Member, Leadership Council, UNAIDS Global Coalition on Women and AIDS and
Representative of International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS

PAPER HOUSE FILMS AND THE LIFEBOAT PROJECT
In 2005, Paper House Films launched a new documentary film project called Lifeboat: A Woman’s Guide to HIV Positive Motherhood. The aim of this project is to create a collection of films that challenge many of the damaging stereotypes of mothers and children affected by HIV. The films take an unflinching, unapologetic look at the taboo subjects of sex, pregnancy and motherhood and focus on the human experiences of wanting, having, loving and raising children in a positive home.

Paper House Films is an independent, documentary film and new media company formed in 2004 by activist and filmmaker, Manuela Maiguashca. Our documentary film work focuses on the appalling lack of human rights so many mothers and children face globally. Over the last 3 years, we have worked with international NGOs to produce hard-hitting educational and advocacy films about women’s experiences of childbirth and motherhood. Much of the work we do is linked to wider educational and social action projects initiated by international partners.

DIRECTORS
Manuela Maiguashca is a UK filmmaker and activist, now living and working in the Netherlands, who has produced and directed documentary, narrative and hard-hitting advocacy films about human rights and maternal health. She has worked in Africa (Ethiopia), the UK, Germany and the Netherlands with international NGOs as an activist, writer, director and producer. Stories and subjects range from the appalling conditions of labour in many remote Ethiopian communities to stories of childbirth, early feeding and motherhood in Europe. Her film work has been broadcast internationally, distributed throughout Europe by The UK Film Council and used in UK educational programming by the British Universities and Video Council Permanent Collection and the Coutts Library Collection. As a researcher and writer for the Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights, she has focussed on women's global vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. Ms. Maiguashca initiated the Lifeboat Project in Nov 2005. The films that have been developed so far, for this project, are being screened in South America, Europe and Asia by international organisations dealing with HIV/AIDS.

DIRECTORS
Moniek Wester Keegstra has been directing films for Dutch National television and NGOs since 1995. Her documentary film work focuses on human rights and experiences of trauma. Film work includes “Gaza, Gabbers & Graffity”, nominated for the “Prix d’Europe” (Berlin 1997), broadcast on Dutch TV (HUMAN) and exhibited at international festivals. Ms. Wester Keegstra is Co-producer of 26000 Faces, a Dutch social action documentary project that focussed on asylum seekers who faced deportation despite having lived for many years in Holland. The films were shown on Dutch national television every night and at international film festivals (including International Documentary Film Festival of Amsterdam and Rotterdam Film Festival in 2004) as part of a campaign to raise awareness. In 2006, the newly elected Dutch government declared a general pardon for almost all asylum seekers from the 26000 Faces group. Currently Ms. Wester Keegstra works as freelance film director and editor for Medicine Sans Frontieres.

STATEMENT BY PARTICIPANTS

Mirjam
I have realized that breaking taboos around HIV will not start with people who are not affected. Only when people living with HIV talk about it - about how we live - will things change. Years ago, I decided to speak up about HIV and that is one of the reasons I decided to make this film. “The Dream” is the kind of film I would have liked to see when I was just diagnosed and had not yet told my family or friends.

Piet
By participating in this film, I hope that I can make a contribution to a better understanding of what it means to be HIV-positive, to be a partner of someone who is HIV-positive and the issues that arise when you (want to) have children in this situation. HIV and, of course, any other disease, is not something which only affects the so-called patient but also affects the partner, the children, the parents, the brothers and sisters, the friends and other relatives. I feel that the voices of those other "affected" people deserve to be heard as well. My voice is one of them.

For more information - www.lifeboatfilmsorg