Two-time Academy Award-nominated Disney producer to hold Chicago premiere of new documentary at SXU

Chicago (March 24, 2011) Saint Xavier University will host the Chicago premiere of Hand Held, a documentary exploring the plight of the 400,000 children in Romania’s orphanages after the fall of communism. Creators Don Hahn, award-winning producer and documentary filmmaker, and Michael Carroll, photographer and Romanian Children’s Relief founder, will attend the Sat., April 2 premiere.

The premiere is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at McGuire Hall, located at SXU’s Chicago campus, 3700 W. 103rd St. It is free and open to the public, and a short question-and-answer session will follow the film.

Hand Held is a documentary film produced and directed by Hahn, a two-time Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker who produced classic Disney films such as Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King. The film examines Carroll’s exploration of one of the most appalling scenes of the 20th century – the overcrowded Romanian orphanages discovered in the wake of the collapse of that nation’s communist regime. Carroll documented the horror for The Boston Globe, The New York Times and other publications, meanwhile founding Romanian Children’s Relief to bring aid to the subjects in his lens. He was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his work.

The premiere is sponsored by the Sweeney Family Annual Lecture and hosted by SXU’s Center for Religion and Public Discourse.

Media interested in interviewing Hahn or Carroll should contact Assistant Director of Media Relations Rick Ducat at (773) 298-3325 or ducat@sxu.edu.