The 2001 documentary film, nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary, intimately follows the life of five homeless children on the streets of Bucharest, Romania. Children Underground provides a glimpse into the tumultuous and painful world of children abandoned by their government, society, and often their families.
During his dictatorship, Ceausescu outlawed contraceptives in an effort to increase Romania’s workforce. The consequences of this decision became clear once his dictatorship fell. Thousands of children were born into impoverished or dysfunctional families. Many ran away from home to escape terrible conditions while others left underfunded state run orphanages where they suffered terrible abuse. It is estimated over 20,000 children flooded the streets of Romania.
Mr. Arce, utilizing social media, got in touch with one of the children in the film, Mihai Tudose. Now an adult, Mihai received his education in Liège, Belgium and is currently working for a company in Romania. Utilizing Google Translate, Mr. Arce and Mihai were able to communicate with one another. Mihai agreed to answer questions from students regarding his experiences as a child on the streets of Bucharest.
Students recorded their questions on their iPads and put together a video for Mihai using iMovie and uploaded it to YouTube.
“It was very important for me to make history come to life for my students,” Arce said. “I wanted them to better understand a global issue that affects us all and allow them to connect to it on a personal level utilizing the technology available to us.”
The video submitted by students can be viewed on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny8us_COS2o.
Mihai answered all questions asked by students in the video. The questions ranged from what he is doing professionally, how his friends from the streets are, his faith, how his experiences affected his belief in God, and how his family is doing. Mihai expressed his gratitude and was touched by their effort to better understand his experiences as a child. The following is Mihai’s translated reply after viewing the video for the first time: “Hello Carlos, I watched the video and tomorrow, I’ll answer all your questions, you can tell them all that it made me cry when I saw the beginning of the video. Thank you to all. Mihai.”
Children Underground was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary and won the Sundance Film Festival’s Jury Prize, the International Documentary Association’s Documentary Award, and the Gotham Awards’ Documentary Achievement Prize.