Hi Mike,
Are you still thinking about putting the video on the Web via Ourmedia or another media host?
ac
Michael Furdyk wrote:
FYI everyone, we also have an educator's guide to using the movie: http://wsisyouth.takingitglobal.org/movie/lvgv_educators_guide.pdf
This DVD cost us a lot more to make (about double) than we expected when we went to get funding for it. Things like the videographer getting arrested, sick in cheaper hotels, missing flights, etc. cost many thousands of dollars beyond budgeted amounts! So if you're interested, we'd love for you to buy it. I think if we sold around 1,500 copies we might break even :) wishful thinking...
We added a direct Paypal purchase link on the page: http://wsisyouth.takingitglobal.org/movie/
-- Michael
Michael Furdyk Co-founder and Director of Technology, TakingITGlobal.org
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Lars Hasselblad Torres Sent: Friday, March 25, 2005 10:26 AM To: The Digital Divide Network discussion group Subject: Re: [DDN] Movie Review: Local Voices, Global Visions
Andy, your idea about getting the TIG DVD into schools sounds like a great idea for the Omidyar Network $25k challenge. Why not draft a one page precis? Perhaps pull together a few reading resources as well...? I guess I should check the website to get my copy, eh?
Safe travels -- Acela is fun -- almost makes you think we have modern rail transport in the US ;P
Lars -- devarts.org Connecting visual artists to create a better world
On 3/24/05 12:02 PM, "Andy Carvin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Movie Review: Local Voices, Global Visions
I'm riding on an Amtrak Acela train through snowbound Connecticut
right
now on my way to the National Model United Nations Conference, where I'll be addressing a group of 500 youth delegates who are conducting a mock World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). To psych myself
up
for the talk, I brought along a DVD of TakingITGlobal's new
documentary,
Local Voices, Global Visions. I got the DVD in the mail just before I left for India a few weeks ago, so this was my first chance to see it.
If I could snap my fingers and burn 100,000 DVDs in a flash, I would send a copy of this documentary to every K-12 school in the United States, then snap my fingers some more until they turned raw so
schools
and youth groups around the world could have a copy as well. This 45-minute documentary, produced entirely by young people, does an astounding job at capturing what's at stake with WSIS, which will have its second summit this November in Tunisia. And it demonstrates the vital role that youth can play in policymaking, whether related to the digital divide or other important policy goals.
The video profiles groups of young people from around the world -- Sierra Leone, Nigeria, India, the Philippines, Canada and Tunisia --
as
they organize national youth campaigns to mobilize young people into
the
WSIS policymaking process. The documentary is broken down into
segments,
each one profiling youth activists and their work in their home
country.
We get to know Andrew Benson Greene and his colleagues in IEARN Sierra Leone as they teach their peers to use digital technology and create music as part of their country's post-civil war healing process. In Nigeria, 'Gbenga Sesan leads a national campaign to educate youth
about
the importance of participating in digital divide policymaking. In India, we meet a young woman who has opened up her home to a local orphanage so she can teach children computer skills. And in Tunisia,
we
learn about Marouen Mrahi, Rim Nour and their fellow engineering students as they galvanize Tunisian youth to participate in the next WSIS summit, which will take place in their home town of Tunis.
The documentary reaches its climax in Geneva during the first WSIS summit in December 2003. The young people profiled in the video, along with hundreds of other youth activists, organize seminars, participate in summit plenaries, and demonstrate ICT projects to government ministers. The summit is the culmination of more than a year of activities around the world, but it's quite clear that these young people have no plans of wrapping up their activities once they go
home.
For one thing, they've got another WSIS summit ahead of them in
November
2005, but beyond that, you get to see how these young people are
laying
the groundwork for long-term initiatives to bridge the digital divide
in
their home countries.
I've met many of the young people profiled in this documentary in person, so it's great getting to see them in the spotlight, but it's
not
just because I know them personally. (Full disclosure --
TakingITGlobal
is a strategic partner of the Digital Divide Network, and I donated
some
photos from the Geneva summit for the documentary.) Watching them
speak,
organize local campaigns and take action, I couldn't help but think these young people are truly the leaders of tomorrow. In all seriousness, I wouldn't be at all shocked if one of them - or even
more
- end up becoming heads of state in their home countries. They have charisma, leadership skills, articulateness and a profound grasp of policy issues. Not only does this video document the role of youth in WSIS, it documents national leaders in the making.
Beyond the amazing people profiled in the video, there's the high production quality as well. TakingITGlobal produced it on a Mac laptop running Final Cut Pro editing software (I note with some pride, as
these
tools are my own documentary weapons of choice), with all the work
done
by young people. Twenty-one-year-old Jarra McGrath traveled the world shooting the film, with TakingITGlobal's Nick Moraitis collaborating
as
co-editor and as narrator. Even the music is produced by youth, most notably the songs recorded by IEARN Sierra Leone. The documentary is
a
perfect example of how young people can be producers of high-quality content, from video editing to interstitial animations to the Hollywood-quality DVD jewel box packaging.
I do have one complaint, though; the documentary is not available online. If you go to the video's website (http://www.wsisyouth.org/movie), there's a short clip, but otherwise only contact information for purchasing copies. That's a real shame -- it would be an enormous public service to make the documentary, or at least more clips, available for noncommercial and educational use.
Otherwise, I can't say enough about this documentary. I am so
inspired.
It's reinforcing the creative buzz I felt during my recent trip to India, where I produced two documentary shorts on my laptop. My mind
is
racing with ideas, locations, editing tricks: I'm just dying to get
out
in the field and make more documentaries now.
But my short-term goal may have backfired. I intended to watch this video to get psyched for my speech later today, yet I may have to
scrap
my entire presentation for the conference. I'm almost - almost -
tempted
to shut up and let this documentary do the talking. With Local Voices, Global Visions, the youth of TakingITGlobal articulate the importance
of
WSIS better than I ever could with just an old-fashioned speech....
-andy
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-- ----------------------------------- Andy Carvin Program Director EDC Center for Media & Community acarvin @ edc . org http://www.digitaldivide.net http://www.tsunami-info.org Blog: http://www.andycarvin.com ----------------------------------- _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
