Losers is a new, emotionally touching two-minute short film by Everynone, with brilliant sound design and an ethereal score by Keith Kenniff. Losers is an anti-bullying film that not only effectively conveys its message, but is visually stimulating as well. The film brings you face to face with how racial slurs, anti-gay taunts, and other insults and actions can hurt others.
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“Our hope is that our family’s personal tragedy will serve as a call for compassion, empathy, and human dignity.”
-Family of Tyler Clementi
Tyler Clementi was an 18-year-old Rutgers University freshman when he jumped from the George Washington Bridge in an apparent suicide in September 2010, days after he had been secretly filmed during an intimate encounter which was then broadcast on the Internet.
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I Get Wet is a short film that was co-written by an amazing afterschool class of elementary school children at the Grace Church School in Lower Manhattan and Benh Zeitlin. Benh Zeitlin directed the award-winning Glory at Sea, a film that was set in Post-Katrina New Orleans. Zeitlin is a member of the acclaimed film collective Court 13, which is a renowned ensemble group of collaborative filmmakers and performers.
I Get Wet begins as a dark tale of school bullying, about an 8 year-old who is constantly being tormented by a secret gang of girls in his elementary school. It turns out to be an adorable short film about a little boy, his best friend Super Dog and the strains placed on their close friendship because he didn’t want to be stuffed into a trash can every single day for the rest of his life. However, by the end of the film, I Get Wet reveals itself to be a true love story for the ages.
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Today, December 1st, is the 20th Annual World AIDS Day, a day when individuals and organizations from all around the world come together to bring attention to the global AIDS epidemic. According to UNAIDS estimates, there are now 39.5 million people living with HIV, including 2.3 million children. Around half of all people who become infected with HIV do so before they are 25 years-old, and they are killed by AIDS before they are 35. Around 95% of the people with HIV/AIDS live in developing nations.
However, HIV today is a threat to men, women and children on all continents around the world. Started in 1988, World AIDS Day is not just about raising money, but is also about increasing awareness, fighting prejudice and improving education. World AIDS Day is important in reminding people that HIV has not gone away, and that there are many things still to be done.
D. Patrick Zimmerman, Psy. D.
(Disembedded)
“Many words may make it sound contrived
But somehow we’re alive
The survivors-Our heads bowed
The survivors-At memorials for other faces in the crowd
Teachers and artists
And Saturday girls
Or twinsets-and-pearls
If life is worth living,
It’s got to be run
As a means of giving,
Not as a race to be won
Many roads will run through many lives
But somehow we’ll arrive.”
The Pet Shop Boys, Miracles
Music Audio: You Raise Me Up:
Technorati: World Aids Day 2008, World Aids Day, AIDS, HIV, celebrities, personalities, gay, gay life, gay issues, African-American, GLBT, culture, cultural issues, cultural, social, social issues, society, world, world news, news, health, health issues, medical, medical issues, mental health, psychology, art, image, picture, Pet Shop Boys, Philadelphia, The Survivors, music, songs, video, music video
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Qasim Basir is a young filmmaker living in New York City who has been inspired by Barack Obama. In an article on The Huffington Post, Qasim wrote that, “He has inspired me, a usually self-motivated individual, to try to be a better person overall. I sometimes find myself in situations where I have a choice to do my best or just get by. And something in me refers back to something Obama may have said about making this country better. Then I realize that if I can do better in all of my endeavors and we all do the same as a collective nation, this place can actually get better.”
As a filmmaker, Qasim wanted to do something in support of the man that he so admired. By chance, one of his filmmaker friends in Los Angeles, Mike Lynch, was thinking along the same lines. Late one night, Qasim received a call from Lynch in his small Manhattan studio. Lynch said, “Qasim, we need to do something to support Obama.” That call sparked a flame in Qasim that inspired him to stay up all night and draft some ideas for a short film series. He wanted the series of short films to capture the quality that he most admired about Barack Obama.
It was by no means easy for Qasim to achieve his vision. It took everything that he and Lynch had to pull together enough resources to be able to finish the series of films. Along the way, they received free assistance from some usually highly paid professionals and raised most of the financial support for the film series through friends’ donations. Qasim feels that, “That’s why what we did here is so significant. We took a page out of Obama’s book and were successful at it. Almost like a prototype, test, or a living example of how his plan for this country can really work. A grass roots effort, people pulling together with a common purpose, even without all the necessary means, can make something positive and significant happen. I like to say that we accomplished this with nothing but Hope.”
Entitled The Inspiration of Barack: “Yes We Can” Film Series, Qasim refers to them as “Seven American Stories of Hope.” Each of the short films is about different people who, in the face of suffering and hardships in their lives, were inspired by Obama to confront their hardships and take an essential step forward. Each of the titles begins with Yes We Can, which is followed by College, Economy, Family, Housing, Immigration, Vote and War.
A screening of The Inspiration of Barack: “Yes We Can” Film Series, along with a “behind the scenes” video, is scheduled to place at 7 p.m. on Friday, September 12th at Tribeca Cinemas (54 Varick St., New York City).
Technorati: adolescents, art, photographs, photography, Barack Obama, Obama, change, hope, dreams, Qasim Basir, Yes We Can, Yes We Can Film Series, Yes We Can-College, American Stories of Hope, Seven American Stories of Hope, film, short film, movie, politics, New York City, NYC, Manhattan, The Huffington Post, news, entertainment, entertainment news, world news
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Barack Obama was greeted by the largest crowd of his campaign on Friday night in Philadelphia. It was the biggest gathering of Obama supporters that the campaign had ever seen, exceeding the 30,000 who greeted Obama and Oprah Winfrey in December in Columbia, S.C. An estimated 35,000 to 40,000 people pressed into Independence Park to hear the Democratic presidential candidate, four days before Pennsylvania’s crucial presidential primary on April 22nd.
Beyond the stunning fact that more people came out for Obama’s rally in front of Independence Hall than any other event since he announced his candidacy, there was a remarkable spontaneous demonstration of support that occurred when his speech ended. At least 5,000 people had nowhere to go but up Market Street. Obama’s charge of the night: “Declare independence!” was with them. They started with the familiar “O-Bam-A.” By 7th and Market Streets, they had graduated to “Yes we can!” By 10th and Market Streets, with hundreds of supporters streaming in between cars on the road, they were just cheering. At first, a few Philadelphia policemen cops tried to move the surging crowd to the sidewalks, but it didn’t work. The police finally retreated to the sidewalks, and a full mile away from Independence Park, the Obama crowd was still marching.
Barack Obama’s Philadelphia speech is now being hailed as one of the most powerful discourses on race ever given by a politician. Obama’s speech on race recognized that some blacks and whites still harbor significant anger and resentment. While condemning their hateful expression, he conceded that these feelings exist. Obama spoke from the heart, from his true experience of living in both our black and white cultures. His life, indeed his DNA, embodies a truly American experience. Obama mapped out his vision for getting beyond the distractions of race toward solving the real problems Americans face: the war, the economy, health, education and the environment.
Obama told the crowd that the United States is at a critical moment in its history, not unlike what the founding fathers faced in Philadelphia. “It was over 200 years ago that a group of patriots gathered in this city to do something that no one in the world believed they could do,” Obama said. “After years of a government that didn’t listen to them, or speak for them, or represent their hopes and their dreams, a few humble colonists came to Philadelphia to declare their independence from the tyranny of the British throne.”
The Illinois senator called Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton a “tenacious” opponent but said that it was time to move beyond the old politics of the 1990s. Hillary Clinton “is a tenacious campaigner and is a committed public servant,” he began. But her message, he said, is “that we can’t really change the say anything, do anything special interest game of so we might as well choose a candidate who knows how to play the game.” He mocked her “kitchen sink strategy” and then stated, “I’m not running to be the president who plays the same old game. I’m running to end the game.”
Technorati: Barack Obama, Obama, Hillary Clinton, Obama’s race speech, Obama’s speech on race, African-American, Black, race, racial, Obama’s Philadelphia speech, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania presidential primary, Pennsylvania primary, celebrities, photographs, video, videos, video of Obama’s race speech, culture, cultural issues, cultural, gay, GLBT, politics, political issues, political, 2008 election, social, social issues, social life, society, multimedia, religion, religious issues, news, political news, world news, world
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Yesterday was World AIDS Day, which is observed each year on December 1st. It is dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection. AIDS has killed more than 25 million people, with an estimated 38.6 million people living with HIV, making it one of the most destructive epidemics in recorded history. Despite recent, improved access to antiretroviral treatment and care in many regions of the world, the AIDS epidemic claimed an estimated 3.1 million (between 2.8 and 3.6 million) lives in 2005, of which more than half a million (570,000) were children. The concept of a World AIDS Day originated at the 1988 World Summit of Ministers of Health on Programmes for AIDS Prevention. Since then, it has been taken up by governments, international organizations and charities around the world.
While in recent years much attention has been focused on global AIDS, it is essential that we not overlook the fact that the disease remains a significant public threat in the United States, where it has become a nearly forgotten epidemic. Consider this: every 13 minutes, an American is newly infected with HIV, and 10% of them are children and adolescents under 24 years old. More than 500,000 Americans have died from the illness in the past quarter century; moreover, in the 30 minutes it takes many people to commute to work, AIDS steals the life of another American.
Philadelphia: The Pet Shop Boys
The Survivors: The Pet Shop Boys
From the Lyrics:
Many words may make it sound contrived
But somehow we’re alive
The survivors – Our heads bowed
The survivors – At memorials for other faces in the crowd
Teachers and artists
And Saturday girls
In suits or sequins
Or twinsets-and-pearls
If life is worth living,
It’s got to be run
As a means of giving,
Not as a race to be won
Many roads will run through many lives
But somehow we’ll arrive.
Stop AIDS: unaids posi+ive
Technorati: World Aids Day 2007, World Aids Day, AIDS, HIV, celebrities, personalities, gay, gay life, gay issues, African-American, GLBT, culture, cultural issues, cultural, social, social issues, society, world, world news, health, health issues, medical, medical issues, mental health, psychology, art, image, picture, Pet Shop Boys, Philadelphia, The Survivors, music, songs, video, videos, music videos, WordPress video
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