The Memory Box
Shot entirely on location in Ethiopia, "The Memory Box" is a story of tragedy and hope in Africa through the eyes of a most unique, Chaplinesque, Dawish the Clown. Joining a volunteer surgical team from the West, Dawish is drawn beyond the hospital into the villages of rural Africa where the language of pantomime and wit is a universal tongue. He is as at home with the primitive tribes-people of the Omo Valley as he is with the most urbane of the capitol city, Addis Ababa. Dawish is invited into homes, churches, AIDS centers and orphanages where he finds the humanity behind the headlines of poverty, prostitution, hunger, AIDS and hopelessness. Through the eyes of Dawish the Clown, the viewer is given a fresh view, a new perspective on the cynical predictability of the tragedy of Africa. Directed and Edited by Stephen Auerbach