AMERICA FOR DUMMIES

"Witnessing and experiencing the apathy and ignorance of American youth towards the world and the people that govern it has become an astonishing aspect of the “American Lifestyle.” Growing up in a third world country, traveling the world and really seeing both sides of the picture made me question the capability of the future leaders of our world. America for Dummies is my quest to uncover why we are so apathetic about the world, let alone our nation, especially in our post-9/11 atmosphere."Niaz Mosharraf

Winner of the Youth Voice Award from the 2009 Media That Matters Film Festival.

FEDEX WINS AT 1ST CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP FILM FESTIVAL

A short video produced by FedEx took top honors in the first annual Corporate Citizenship Film Festival organized by the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship in coordination with their Corporate Citizenship Conference, Leading Change, Finding Opportunity held March 29th to the 31st in San Francisco. The FedEx video demonstrated how the company uses its transportation and logistical skills to meet the needs of communities around the world. The video powerfully demonstrated the value of moving vital relief supplies into communities following humanitarian crisis such as the Chengdu earthquake. The film also featured community groups and a broad range of FedEx employees working together with the common goal of making a positive impact during difficult situations.

Rose Flenorl, FedEx’s manager of social responsibility, accepted the award for the company at the 2009 International Corporate Citizenship conference in San Francisco and said “As a corporate citizen, we are committed to building stronger communities through volunteerism, corporate donations, charitable shipping and sponsorships with major charities. Our story is a salute to the amazing work of nonprofit organizations and our FedEx team members who are making an incredible impact in the lives of people worldwide.”





This is the first year of the Boston College film festival, and there 15,000 votes cast in the competition. Judging by the comments, it was apparent that a good percentage of the voter were cast by “average citizens” who came across the film festival through a variety of paths and were simply gratified to see companies’ good works in their communities. Companies that entered their work in the film festival were: Accenture, Aetna, Allstate, Amway, AT&T, Bank of America, Best Buy, Campbell Soup Company, Coca-Cola, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, Exxon Mobil, FedEx, Hitachi, Intel, Mars North America, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Northrop Grumman, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Pitney Bowes, PricewaterhouseCoopers, UPS, Western Union and Whirlpool.

The videos can be viewed online at the Boston College Center website. Each video is between 1 and 3 minutes in length and captures each company's positive impact, typically in partnership with nonprofits, customers and employees, on social and environmental challenges.

FILM | THE PERSUADERS

"Advertising wants to become the air we breath. It wants us to not be able to find a way outside of the world it creates for us." ~~Mark Crispin Miller, Media Critic ~~

The producers of the film "Merchants of Cool" developed the film "The Persuaders" which outlines how consumers are now being sold on products through the use of emotionalism, narrow casting and niche marketing. In order to cut through the tremendous media clutter, companies and advertising agencies are scrambling to find ways to get us to purchase things...anything and everything. Very much like Steven Baker's book, Numerati, this film explains the future of selling and advertising and how companies seek to differentiate, not just the brands but the audience. By playing on individuality, companies are inducing Americans to consume while reinforcing their emotional attachment to the brands. This film was made several years ago prior to the current economic crisis but it surely illustrates the direction that political and consumer advertising will be taking in the near future. Concepts discussed in the film range from product placements, creating brands as cultural meaning systems to language decoding and testing—all to sell us on political ideas or material consumption.

Watch the Frontline film online.

Printed Interviews:
Mark Crispin Miller

Naomi Klein on Brands

The future of marketing and advertising

Stay abreast of the issues of commercialism

FutureWave -International Youth Films

FutureWave is a feature-length program of shorts by students 18 and under that showcases the best in international student films. Submissions close on March 1, 2008. Submit student films completed in the past year.

Superfly is a 3-Day Youth Filmmaking Intensive during the Seattle International Film Festival. 50 youth from across the country come together to create a short film in just three days with a high profile public screening at the festival. Students will collaborate with other youth and master teachers, while exploring Pacific Northwest Native American Culture. Application deadline is April 1, 2008.

More information is available online or contact dustin.kaspar@seattlefilm.org if you have any questions or need any more information about these important programs.

PANGEA DAY

If the whole world was watching what story would you tell? Pangea Day taps the power of film to strengthen tolerance and compassion while uniting millions of people to build a better future.

On May 10, 2008 -- Pangea Day -- sites in Cairo, Dharamsala, Kigali, London, New York City, Ramallah, Rio de Janeiro and Tel Aviv will be linked to produce a 4-hour program of powerful films, visionary speakers, and uplifting music. The program will be broadcast live to the world through the Internet, television, digital cinemas, and mobile phones.

Your film could be part of it. Pangea Day is looking for films approximately 5-minutes in length that will make people laugh, pause and think. They can be fiction, non-fiction, real-life, animation or a mixture. Above all, they should tell a story that someone else on the other side of the world will be able to relate to.

Of course, movies alone can’t change the world. But the people who watch them can. So following May 10, 2008, Pangea Day organizers will facilitate community-building activities around the world by connecting inspired viewers with numerous organizations which are already doing groundbreaking work.

Pangea is the name of the original super-continent which contained all the world's land mass before the continents started splitting apart 250 million years ago. Pangea Day is being launched with the vision that the people of the world can begin to overcome their divisions, and that the power of film can help make it possible.

Find out how Pangea Day got its start with Jehane Noujaim's wish.

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REAL OR NOT~ FIXATION WITH CELEBRITY IMAGES

British Photographer and Filmmaker Alison Jackson asks, "How do we know when we are looking at something, that it's real or not?...We read all our information through imagery. It's an extremely fast way of getting information and it's extremely difficult to tell if it's real, if it's constructed correctly." Her art and new book illustrate this point beautifully. Using look-a-likes, Jackson plays tricks on her audience to make them think critically about the images they see every day as voyeur paparazzi wanna-be's.



Her perspective is enlightening and worth the 17 minute exploration on her art and business to get an inkling on what drives the mass interest in celebrities.

VOICES SELECT |AUGUSTEN BURROUGHS — RUNNING WITH SCISSORS

What a great movie! I saw only a 30 sec commercial on TV, but somehow it resonated with me and I saw it with 5 friends. The subject matter is intense —a precocious, only child with a narcistic mother and alcoholic father is adopted by the family's shrink. Clearly over the top, a chaotic story unravels, sometimes hilarous, and sometimes taboo. It's the memoir of Augusten Burroughs, who is also in the process of writing a series for SHOWTIME. The book Running with Scissors has been on the New York Times best seller list for over 2 and half years and was adapted and directed for film by Ryan Murphy, creator of Nip/Tuck fame. Great acting from Annette Bening, Alec Baldwin, Brian Cox, Joeseph Fiennes and Gweneth Paltrow. This movie is a must see!

Check out this book too: Possible Side Effects "Unflinchingly, he gouges himself (literally and figuratively), bleeds, gets it on paper - often without a neat resolution or the genre's obligatory epiphany - and then makes you laugh. Now that's genius." - The New York Times Book Review