A film I was sad to miss in the theater at Sundance but happy to see at home was Nollywood Babylon, a movie about Nigeria’s film industry (after Hollywood and Mumbai-based Bollywood, it’s the third largest in the world but has the highest volume). With Lagos as the backdrop and against a soundtrack of ’70s African underground music, the documentary highlights passionate producers and directors (with Lancelot “Da Guvernor” Imasuen as a special treat) as they put together popular low-budget stories that frequently include drama and voodoo. Written and directed by Montreal’s AM Pictures partners Ben Addelman and Samir Mallal, the team behind the documentaries Discordia and Bombay Calling, the movie does a fantastic job of making viewers feel like they’re on site at the colorful sets. Showing an industry that creates 50 films a week is no small feat and well worth a watch.
Archive for January, 2009
Here to Nigeria and Back Again
Indisposable
Of the things I’m most bummed to miss in February, the Disposable Film Festival takes the cake. San Francisco’s recently founded festival will highlight work captured on one-time use digital video cameras, webcams, point and shoot digital cameras, cell phones, screen capture software, and the like. The weekend’s series of events, art directed by interactive visual designer Rebecca Bortman, will include selections from the hundreds of submissions shot with non-professional video capturing equipment and will end with a panel about this new filmmaking phenomenon. In case you can’t make it to the screening of the New York film collective Red Bucket Films’ feature “Buttons” this Friday (the trailer will have you tapping your toes until then), the competitive shorts program showcasing “the cream of the disposable-media crop” at the Roxie Theater is not to be missed.
Birth Data Breakdown
It was a bit disheartening to report on my Midwestern home state’s young average age of women when they first give birth (24.7), but writing about the recently released CDC/National Center for Health Statistics data about American birth rates made for more than a few interesting conversations. The piece ran today on the women’s community DivineCaroline and includes a series of quotes about the failure of abstinence-only education that are particularly timely given the outgoing political administration:
“Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement: ‘the failed policies of the Bush administration’s abstinence-only programs have wasted more than $1.5 billion federal and state tax dollars and left our country with the highest rate of teen pregnancy of all the most developed countries in the world.’ Richards said that the CDC’s report reaffirmed what her sexual and reproductive health organization already knows. ‘Abstinence-only programs deny teenagers lifesaving, medically accurate information and do nothing to prevent unintended pregnancies.’”
Pitch Your Startup, Women 2.0-Style
I’m excited about Women 2.0′s upcoming startup competition for alpha, beta, and prototype-stage startups–for the third year, companies with at least one female founding member will have the chance to gain with exposure to early stage investors. (I’m halfway through Guy Kawasaki’s “Reality Check,” so entrepreneurship issues and VC funding are front of mind.)
Startups have until April 10 to submit to PITCH and gain feedback from the judging panel of investors and experienced startup executives. Five will be selected to pitch live in early May, and the winner will get to meet with Sequoia Capital investor Michael Moritz. That, in addition to a few other perks that will especially welcome given the trying economy–free office space, legal services, marketing support, and PR support.
Entering is simple–startups entering will fill out an online application, record a 2-minute video pitch, and send a cocktail napkin with their business plan scribbled on it via snail mail. Stop reading, start typing/recording/drawing.
Thanks, Paste Magazine
Can’t say you’re surprised, can you? (Even if I’m a bit late to the Obamicon.Me game).
Nameless Notes
The artblog project NamelessleTTer finds itself at the intersection of image bookmarking (a la FFFFOUND!) and hidden messages that are written with the intention of being discovered (think PostSecret). The collaborative effort to leave personalized bookmarks in public reading material was created with the intention of spreading creativity and curiosity via bookshops and libraries worldwide. The main guideline for participants is to provide photo documentation of their contribution and “be as original/sensible/artistic/humoristic as possible.”
It certainly worked with a recently posted bookmark left in a copy of “The NPR Curious Listener’s Guide to World Music” ” that featured old-fashioned drawings of musicians in tights with the caption, “Hey! You. Chick with the two flutes. Do you want to be in our band? I beatbox, and my bud Stan plays the circuit-bent electro-harp.” A charming find for one lucky reader, no doubt.
Halloween Theme
The new Friendly Fires tune “Skeleton Boy” is one that’s upbeat enough to be on repeat for the next week (hopefully yours, not your roommates’). But the real beauty is in the simple, visually arresting video directed by Clemens Habicht. The three band members were outfitted in black suits covered with double-sided sticky tape that caught bean bag balls to form the outline of skeletons on their bodies. If it sounds complicated, it’s actually a wonderful way to highlight the singers’ movements—so much so that your college furniture could become a casualty as you dance along.
Sundance Roundup
[In the theme of tomorrow's swearing in, I do solemnly swear to avoid all other cowboy and Western-themed language for the remainder of the post.]
And so, by the numbers: 10 Californians and New Yorkers in two bedrooms, four panels on film distribution in as many days, three fantastic films, and two notable start sightings: one high (Robert Redford at the IndieGoGo party), one low (Elijah Wood at a strange dreamlike soiree).
The films on the first weekend were, non-surprisingly, superb (although, honestly, I cannot speak to the Nazi zombie movie).
End Game, a feature about the African National Conference’s secret negotiations with the South African government to end apartheid in the late 80s, was wonderfully written and cast (as any film about government transition needs to be at an 8:30 AM screening). The documentary Sergio, based on Samantha Powers’ book about the former UN Secretary General’s death in a bombing on his Bagdad office, is a great compliment to Chasing the Flame. It becomes clear what the now-resurrected Obama team member and author meant when she called Vieira de Mello charming–seeing him tan and smiling while brokering peace in East Timor and asking about his team’s wellbeing in his last moments is visual evidence.
Sure, there have been strong words across the blogosphere over the past week calling this year’s festival sleepy and irrelevant given the economic crisis. I’d expected Park City to be more crowded and full of industry pretention–not everything that wasn’t there was missed.
The panels with filmmakers and film executives could have been better promoted, but one event in the New Frontier series moderated by journalist Scott Kirsner of Variety addressed the topics that were front of mind for me and the 60 other people in line: online community building, threats that “the sky is falling” on independent film, and distribution by filmmakers themselves in lieu of large sales with major studios. Cora Olsen, producer of last year’s highly-regarded film Good Dick, gave a fantastic explanation of the widespread outreach her team did to target influencers after they didn’t get the deal they’d anticipated and instead took an all hands on deck approach to targeting college audiences.
I made the newby mistake of bringing one fourth of the business cards I needed, but I’m excited about the work that the people I met over free vodka cocktails are doing, including the SF-based Fund for Women Artists and Seattle’s film forum IndieFlix. (Full details to be saved for future posts.)
[Photos to follow if my camera cord is able to be salvaged from my roller bag upon arrival.]
Better World Books Reaches Out to Northern Uganda
I’m excited to see a classroom project launch a social enterprise company that is then able to provide for increased educational opportunities. That’s the case for locally-operated Better World Books, “the online bookstore with a soul” founded by three Notre Dame alums that collect used books and sell new ones to help fund literacy efforts worldwide.
Their newest partner is Invisible Children, a program that uses multimedia to discuss the ongoing war in northern Uganda and the need for improved classrooms and resources. The two organizations have invited high school and college students to host book drives as part of the “schools for schools” initiative and have raised over a million dollars with the involvement of 2,000 schools. By visiting the Invisible Children partnership page on BetterWorld.com, online book buyers can have the proceeds of their purchases benefit Ugandan school children while helping inspire action education and hope in a place that desperately needs both.
Mid-month Resolutions for the Greater Good
Getting a resolutions post up very late isn’t the best way to kick off the new year, but I couldn’t resist sharing this post published on the women’s community DivineCaroline. Whether in the name of sustainability or social entrepreneurship, making decisions that consider the planet and our communities also can have positive effects on our waistlines and wallets—plus they make for more enjoyable promises to ourselves than the illusion of running 10 miles a day. Unlike your resolutions of New Years past, some of these ideas for ‘09 may even last beyond the first of February.
I’ve taken the liberty of tweaking the U.S. Government’s list of most popular American resolutions (yes, USA.gov really does list these–say what you will about the use of federal resources). While it may not relieve your hangover on the first of the year, doing your part feels pretty good once you get to it.
Quit the habit
Contrary to Steve Jobs’ recent comment about Americans not being interested in reading anymore, many people think books are still worth purchasing and spending time with, thank you very much. Purchasing novels and biographies from an outlet that works to encourage literacy and protect the environment, not just their profits, is a great way to change your one-click ordering habit on Amazon. Ordering Nobel Prize winner Muhammed Yunus’ Banker to the Poor about microfinancing for the poorest of the poor from online retailer Better World Books benefits Books for Africa and other literacy partners. Reading John Wood’s autobiography Leaving Microsoft to Change the World about the work his organization, Room to Read, has taken to publish children’s books in local languages around the world, is another good way to jumpstart externally aimed personal resolutions.
Walk it off
Raising money for charity certainly isn’t made any easier by an economic downturn, but your decision to hit the road can make a compelling case in encouraging donations to an organization or cause you support. If you’ve slashed your vacation budget for the upcoming year, rounding up a few friends to meet you at the LA, San Francisco or New York AIDS Walk can make for a fun long weekend of urban hiking that benefits local AIDS research and outreach organizations. Another option is the two-day Avon Walks for Breast Cancer that take place around the country—and the miles of cheerleaders don’t hurt. The funds raised support not only treatment and support services, but breast cancer screening that is proving ever more important for early detection.
Learn something new
Composting food scraps and switching your incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) are cost-efficient ways to make your house or apartment easier on the earth. It’s also worth signing up for Recycle Bank, a new award program that incentivizes people to recycle more curbside and e-waste. Once you sign up for an account online, the amount you recycle is recorded so you start earning rewards from companies including natural skin care line Kiss My Face and organic yogurt producer Stonyfield Farm.
Stop consuming junk
If you’re among the many gift recipients who got another dismal album or bad DVD during the holidays, you may agree that supporting independent artists just has to improve the quality of what’s available to watch and hear. A few websites make finding projects you’re eager to see produced simple. Sellaband invites music fans to throw a few dollars behind bands and artists looking to raise money for their first professional album, which will earn browsers a limited edition copy once the musician raises $50,000. For filmgoers complaining that there’s nothing worth watching, IndieGoGo offers a wide range of film projects in various states of production that audiences can help fund, endorse, and comment on. Getting to see the $10 you would have spent at the metroplex work harder for a new or experienced filmmaker is a gift in itself.
Practice financial responsibility
One unexpected benefit of Wall Street’s mismanagement may be Americans’ willingness to try socially conscious investment funds with their emphasis on empowering small companies and entrepreneurs. While I’m working to earn the funds required to join Women Moving Millions in their efforts to invest in women’s economic growth around the world, I’m intrigued by the opportunity to make $50 loans to upstart West African companies through the new group Investors Without Borders. There are also good opportunities to help the Cambridge-based MicroLoan Foundation make loans to women starting sustainable businesses in sub-Saharan Africa. If you lack money to loan but have computer skills or the willingness to host a dress-up donation day at your school or office, you can help the foundation expand to Zambia and encourage their clients to start business projects that improve their self-sufficiency.
Organize your priorities
These ideas are only a sampling of the suggestions for helping that you can find with some brief Internet browsing. Planning for the causes and companies you’ll support in the year ahead is easy with charity and product review sites such as Great Nonprofits and GoodGuide, a site that provides information about the environmental and social impact of products you own. (The latter was recently nominated for the startup award show Crunchies in the category of “Most likely to make the world a better place.”) The large healthy and green living community Care2 also offers advice on sustainable nutrition and volunteering for causes you care about. These sites are great for kicking off your plans for more thoughtful months to come, but making them happen may require stepping away from the screen. It will be here when you’re ready to report back on making your impact felt, I promise.
IMOW
