Filmmaker hopes to enlighten youth on HIV/Aids
"Heaven's Meadow; The Small Wonders of Baan Gerda" - a documentary about HIV/Aids orphans - will be screened today as part of the World Film Festival schedule in Bangkok.
"I hope the kids' lives [as shown] in the film will help young people be informed about the correct information about HIV/Aids," said the film's maker Detlev F Neufert, after a preview screening yesterday at the Grand EGV Theatre at Siam Discovery. "Heaven's Meadow" documents the story of Baan Gerda, a village in Lop Buri province which gives Aids orphans a happy place to live out their lives. The village is near the famous Wat Phrabat Nampu hospice. The project was founded by Karl Morsbach and his wife Tassanee in 2002 and named after Morsbach's mother, Gerda. Morsbach is a former manager at German firm Henkel. Before Baan Gerda was set up, children with HIV/Aids were barred from their communities and were considered already dead. But Baan Gerda has given them a normal "family" home where they get anti-retroviral therapy that allows them to grow up like normal children. Neufert tried to shoot the best quality film he could with a Bt140,000 budget. He used a professional camera and production equipment rather than a small, handheld video camera. "Since the subject is Aids orphans, the film must be of the best quality, so it can get the attention of the audience. In turn, that will bring support to Baan Gerda," Neufert said. The film avoids dramatising the children's lives and instead captures the way they are taken care of by resident adultsmost of whom are also HIV positive. It is a world away from where they came from. Some of the children were orphaned after their parents died from Aids-related illnesses, while others came after being disowned and abandoned by their families. However, Neufert admits that marketing the film has been difficult, so he brings the film to celebrities and asks them to watch it. And it works. After songs-for-life singer Yuenyong Ophakul (Ad Carabao) saw the film, he decided to screen it for his fans during a concert last year. Neufert also showed the film to politicians in his home country. The film will screened at 5:30pm at the Grand EGV Theatre at Siam Discovery 3 in DVD format.
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