Madonna's new documentary, I Am Because We Are, aired last night on the Sundance Channel. The film explores the lives of of children in Malawi orphaned by AIDS, and, in a clip (posted after the jump) Madonna talks about her own loss: "I can't compare my suffering to other children, but when I was six years old, my mother died," she says. "I think I really have a connection to children who lose their parents." In another clip from the film, also seen after the jump, Madonna says, "People always ask me why I chose Malawi…I tell them I didn't," she claims. "It chose me."

"When you lose your parents, you lose your direction. You lose your focus in life," Madonna narrates. "When I see these kids here — and I think, they've lost their father, they're lost their mother, they've lost their house — and yet they still can smile about it, I think, how could I ever feel bad about anything?"

In this clip, Madonna explains how she came to know about the 1 million children orphaned in Malawi. She admits that she didn't know where the country was at first, and had to look it up on a map.

I Am Because We Are [Official Site]
I Am Because We Are Screening Dates [Sundance Channel]

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