Hand Held documentary screening and cocktail party to benefit Romanian Children’s Relief

SOUTHBOROUGH, MA, – Hand Held is the new documentary film produced and directed by two-time Academy Award nominated filmmaker, Don Hahn. The film follows Mike Carroll, one of the first photographers to travel to Romania after the fall of the communist regime in 1989.  When he arrived, he walked into one of the most horrific scenes of the 20th century.  Mike’s incredible photographs and heart wrenching stories of the pediatric AIDS epidemic in Romania ran in THE BOSTON GLOBE and opened the eyes of the Western world to the plight of the Romanian children.  What followed was a 20 year odyssey for Mike and his colleagues, as they worked to bring help to a population of children in great need, in a country they hardly knew.

Director Hahn’s previous film credits include The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast.  He has been shooting in Boston, Bucharest and Transylvania for nearly two years on this extraordinary motion picture about one guy with a camera, a band of New Englanders, a hundred and sixty thousand orphans, and the unforgettable story of how they changed each other’s lives forever.

Mike Carroll is also the author of the soon to be released, Picturing the Possible, a personal account of the start of Romanian Children’s Relief and Fundatia Inocenti, told through some of the enormous inventory of beautiful photos taken by Carroll in Romania over the past 20 years.

Romanian Children’s Relief (RCR) is a 501c3 charity supporting Romanian children and families to prevent child abandonment.  With an annual budget of $250,000 this band of thrifty New Englanders still supports the work of 22 Romanian staff, a part time US-based administrator and more than 400 volunteers working with 1,600 children in Romania each year.  Information can be found at www.RCR.org.

Hand Held is produced by Stone Circle Pictures.  For more information and to view the trailer, go to www.HandHeldthemovie.com