I’m looking forward to the 50th Anniversary commemoration of the Peace Corps next weekend. There is going to be a story slam, a gathering of Peace Corps authors, a Third Goal Bash, Embassy receptions, and a march to President Kennedy’s Tomb. Below is the latest recruitment video from the Peace Corps. While it is good, it seems to have omitted the traditional refrain, “The Toughest Job You’ll Ever Love,” which is too bad because it was quite apropos. Also, the video seems to gloss over some of the real challenges of living in the third world. Anyway, its worth watching if you are considering the Peace Corps. Another, more time-intensive way to learn about the Peace Corps is to read some of the books written by Peace Corps volunteers. This is one of my favorites, but there are dozens that I have really liked and none that I have not liked: Under the Neem Tree, by Susan Lowerre (Senegal 1985–87). Without a doubt, the Peace Corps is not for everyone, but if it is right for you, it will be a remarkable, life-changing experience that you will cherish. It will alter your life path in a significant way.
Category: video
Art Project
It’s now possible to visit about a dozen art museums around the world without ever leaving the comfort of your home.
Peace Corps Video Contest
The Peace Corps changes lives and wants to hear your story.
This summer, the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) is running a video contest in celebration of the upcoming 50th Anniversary of the Peace Corps. We’re asking you to submit a one- to two-minute video about how the Peace Corps, a Peace Corps Volunteer, or Returned Peace Corps Volunteer changed your life.
- Perhaps it was a teacher whose stories of cultures overseas opened your eyes to the world.
- Maybe it was your co-worker whose unique ability to connect with people made all the difference.
- It could be a Peace Corps Volunteer living in your community who inspired you to dream big.
- Or maybe it’s your mother, whose service overseas proved that you’re never too old to have an adventure.
Whether you served in the Peace Corps or not, we all share its legacy.
Tell us your story. Tell us about your piece of the Peace Corps.
- Grand Prize: $2,500
- Second prize: $1,000
- Third prize: $500
* This contest is generously sponsored by Juliane Heyman, Peace Corps Staff, 1961-66.
How to Enter
Note that you must complete both steps in order to enter the contest.
Step 1:
Upload your video to the NPCA contest group on YouTube. Videos not submitted to this online group will not be eligible to win. All videos must meet contest requirements below.
Go to YouTube
Step 2:
Submit your completed online entry form here.
Complete and Submit Your Form
Enter now and share your story with the rest of the world! We look forward to receiving your entry. The winners will be announced in October 2010.
Great Documentary on a local DC hero
“Redemption Stone-The Life and Times of Tom Lewis” will have its U.S. Television premiere Monday May 24th on the Documentary Channel at 8:00 p.m. ET.
http://www.documentarychannel.com/
Redemption Stone introduces Tom Lewis, a storyteller of quiet power, who recounts the social upheaval and rebirth that shape his unique American journey. A spiritual vision inspires Tom to open an after-school safe haven called The Fishing School and to turn hardship into hope for the children in his community.
http://www.redemptionstone.net
Best Film of the year: The Cove
I saw the film today and also heard the producer speak. Here is an excerpt of the talk he gave at SilverDocs: http://boo.fm/b31943
It is a moving film called “The Cove,” about efforts to save dolphins. Please take action by visiting http://www.takepart.com/thecove/
Below is a review I just read:
From: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/04/the-cove-trying-to-save-23000-dolphins-from-slaughter.php
The Cove – Trying to Save 23,000 Dolphins from Slaughter
by Jaymi Heimbuch, San Francisco, California 
on 04. 9.09
Photo via TheCoveMovie.com
Each year, starting in mid-September, 23,000 dolphins are slaughtered in near secrecy in a cove in Taiji, Japan. Richard O’Barry, the leading dolphin trainer in the 1960s and trainer of the dolphins used in the TV series Flipper, has been trying to stop this slaughter for years. We covered the stories of activist Hayden Panettiere trying to expose the slaughter. And last year, we covered the story of a brave set of film makers lead by director Louie Psihoyos who have teamed up with O’Barry and other activists in an effort to show people the intolerable killings. They’ve now created a film called The Cove showing their efforts to get through the intense security and record what happens there.
The Cove is a powerful documentation of more than just this mass killing of dolphins, whose meat is later labeled as some other type of larger whale and sent for sale in markets, despite the incredibly high levels of mercury it contains due to pollution. The film is also a story of the power of commerce, the government corruption, and the culture of loving something to death that all culminate at this tiny cove where anyone trying to see what happens is intimidated until they leave.
Psihoyos and his team undertook an operation to set up secret cameras and document what happens in the cove – the round-up, the selection of a few dolphins for sale to aquatic entertainment centers, and then the slaughter of every animal left in the ring of nets.
The International Whaling Commission does nothing to stop Japan’s extreme whaling habits. The citizens of Japan do nothing simply because it is kept under such tight wrap, people don’t even know that dolphin meat is being consumed. It has taken the activists involved in this film to get it as exposed as it has become so far.
The film is intense, it’s message clear and urgent, and its passion contagious. Right now, it is being screened in various locations, but needs funding to be completed and shown on a larger scale. And time is running out – the slaughter is set to start again this September.
If you want to see the film, try to catch one of these screenings. You can also watch snippits at TheCoveMovie.com. And, of course, if you want to take action immediately, there are ways to do that too through petitions and changes in your own daily life.
Special SilverDocs screenings/events
These films and post-screening discussions look interesting:
CRUDE
June 16 at 5:15 p.m.
Post-screening discussion with Award-winning filmmaker Joe Berlinger (PARADISE LOST, BROTHER’S KEEPER, METALLICA: SOME KIND OF MONSTER)
FACING ALI
June 16 at 7 p.m.
Post-screening discussion moderated by longtime USA Today sports writer David DuPree featuring filmmaker Pete McCormack and producer Derik Murray.
MUGABE AND THE WHITE AFRICAN
June 18 at 4:30 p.m.
Post-screening panel discussion featuring filmmaker Lucy Bailey, moderated by Peter Godwin, former BBC foreign correspondent and author of When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa.
NO IMPACT MAN
June 18 at 4:45 p.m.
Post-screening discussion moderated by Award-winning NPR national correspondent Daniel Zwerdling featuring filmmakers Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein and film subject BusinessWeek senior writer Michelle Conlin.
CONVENTION
June 18 at 7 p.m.
Post-screening discussion featuring members of the filmmaking team, Leah Daughtry, CEO 2008 Democratic National Convention, Katherine Archuleta, DNC Lead City Planner, Chantal Unfug, Denver liaison to the DNC, Curtis Hubbard, Denver Post political editor, and Denver Post reporter Allison Sherry.
FRED WESLEY QUARTET
June 19 at 7-8 p.m.
Fred Wesley Quartet in performance at the Downtown Silver Spring Plaza Stage on Ellsworth Drive between Georgia and Fenton. The legendary Fred Wesley, featured in the film SOUL POWER, delivers a little of his own.
THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE
June 19 at 7:15 p.m.
Post-screening discussion moderated by Pulitzer Prize-winning fashion writer Robin Givhan and filmmaker R.J. Cutler.
SOUL POWER
June 19 at 9:45 p.m.
Post-screening discussion and performance featuring filmmaker Jeffrey Levy-Hinte and legendary funk/jazz trombonist Fred Wesley.
EPISODE 3 – ENJOY POVERTY
June 20 at 3:30 p.m.
Post-screening discussion featuring filmmaker Renzo Martens moderated by WAMU-88.5 FM host Kojo Nnamdi.
Closing Night: THE NINE LIVES OF MARION BARRY
June 20 at 6:30 p.m.
Post-screening discussion moderated by Emmy Award-winning NPR news analyst Juan Williams, featuring Civil Rights activist Lawrence Guyot, Dorothy Brizill, Executive Director DC Watch, and NBC4 News reporter Tom Sherwood.
Community Gardener Extraordinaire
Charlie Koiner is almost 90 years old, yet he has an amazing farm in downtown Silver Spring that supplies the whole neighborhood (and beyond) with an amazing variety of fruits and vegetables almost year-round. Below is a video I shot recently where we talk a bit about Montgomery County’s new initiative to promote community gardens. Although one site has been removed from consideration, the initiative is going strong and the county is on the lookout for appropriate locations. I am thinking of doing a documentary about Charlie. If you know him and/or have any ideas for the documentary, please let me know by adding a comment to this blogpost.
(wait for video to load and then click play)
Watch documentary films free on-line
SnagFilms is committed to finding the world‘s most compelling documentaries, whether from established heavyweights or first-time filmmakers, and making them available to the wide audience these titles deserve.
SnagFilms.com is a website where you can watch full-length documentary films for free, but we’re also a platform that lets you “snag” a film and put it anywhere on the web. With a library of 250 films, and rapidly growing, you’re bound to find films that resonate with your interests. We make it easy for you to find a film that shines a light on a cause you care about. You can then open a virtual movie theater on any web site, so any one can watch your favorite SnagFilms for free.
SnagFilms can be summed up in four words: Find. Watch. Snag. Support.
Find. Whether using our custom search tools, browsing by topic, or tuning into one of the great channels provided by our partners, with a few clicks you’ll be able to find what you’re looking for.
Watch. By streaming films worldwide, on-demand, 24×7 and with no software installation or downloading required, we have radically expanded the audience for documentary films. All you need is a decent broadband connection. Just click play, go full-screen, and lean back and enjoy our films.
Snag. Widgets let you take your favorite SnagFilms with you wherever you like to go online. Open a virtual movie theater right in your webpage, blog, Facebook or MySpace page, or just about any other place online you can think of.
Support. At their best, documentaries don‘t merely entertain us, they engage and inspire us to action. Our filmmakers have selected their favorite charities and causes so you can get involved, immediately. And just by embedding our widget our widgets, you’ve donated your pixels and helped support independent film.
FILMOCRACY Winners Make a Statement!
After checking out these clips, go to the library and check out the book entitled Food Politics, by Marion Nestle. I highly recommend it.
Repost of: Independent Lens Newsletter: June 23, 2008
KING CORN, one of this season’s favorite docs, provided the backdrop
for the first Filmocracy mashup contest, where we asked people to mix
it up, make a statement and answer the question: If you are what you
eat, what are you?
Many people used the powerful medium of film to illustrate their
point of view on the politics of food, using KING CORN clips and
footage from Getty Images. Participants uploaded their own clips as
well, and mixed it all up with the Eyespot online editing tool.
And without further adieu… the Filmocracy contest winners are:
Grand Prize
“Corn King Takes Over the World” by Kylee Darcy
Highest Rated
“The Politics of Food” by Brandon Savoie
Most Popular
“And So It Is” by Ananta
Watch at:
http://www.pbs.org/filmocracy
Grand prizewinner Kylee Darcy won $1,000 and her stop-motion animated
short, “Corn King Takes Over the World,” will be screened throughout
the country at Indie Lens Community Cinema events this fall. She also
gets a KING CORN DVD, soundtrack and other fabulous corn-free prizes!
The most popular and highest rated videos get cool prizes too.
Darcy, age 19, is a health conscious sophomore at UC Berkeley who is
passionate about food politics. She came across the Filmocracy
contest while conducting research about the relationship between
nutrition and exercise with mental health. For her entry, Darcy
created her own hand-drawn animation and mixed it up with KING CORN
clips and archival images to make a bold and colorful statement about
the politics of food.
The KING CORN filmmakers chose the grand prizewinner, and Eyespot
viewers gave the highest ratings to “The Politics of Food” by Brandon
Savoie. Savoie, a 22-year-old student and forklift operator from
Louisiana, has “a passion for indie filmmaking,” and entered the
contest to comment on the fast food controversy he had read about on
the Internet. “Even if I didn’t win,” he said, “I thought it would be
a good opportunity to help inform others of the irresponsibility of
the major fast food companies.” The winner of Most Popular
designation, “And So It Is” by Ananta, has not responded to our email
request.
Watch the Independent Lens Filmocracy contest shorts winners (all
under 3 minutes) at:
http://www.pbs.org/filmocracy
Awsomely Powerful and Well Done Documentary Film
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| I saw this film tonight at SilverDocs. It was fantastic. I also got to speak with the Director and the surgeon himself.
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| http://www.theenglishsurgeon.com/thefilm.htm
THE FILM What is it like to have God like surgical powers, yet to struggle against your own humanity? What is it like to try and save a life, and yet to fail? This film follows brain surgeon Henry Marsh as he openly confronts the dilemmas of the doctor patient relationship on his latest mission to the Ukraine. Henry is one of London’s foremost brain surgeons, but despite being a pioneer in his field he stills rides an old pushbike to work and worries himself sick about the damage he can inflict on his patients. “When push comes to shove we can afford to lose an arm or a leg, but I am operating on people’s thoughts and feelings…and if something goes wrong I can destroy that person’s character ……forever”. |
Worthy Mouse Clicks 