Program
THURSDAY, MAY 14, 2009
9:00AM
Opening Remarks by: The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
9:10 - 9:40AM
Christy Turlington Burns, CARE Advocate for Maternal Health/Contributing Editor at Marie Claire Magazine
From fashion icon to activist, Christy has successfully created a diverse and multi-talented career as an entrepreneur, role model and spokesperson in the cosmetic, fashion, business and political spheres. She has graced every magazine cover from Vogue to Time, and today she is an advocate for wellness and international aid, supporting women's health projects and relief work across the globe.
In addition to her work with CARE as Advocate for Maternal Health, with whom she has traveled to El Salvador and Peru, Christy is also directing a feature-length documentary that will bring to light the work being done around the world to reduce maternal mortality. Intended to paint a personal portrait of the people on the front lines working toward MDG #5 - to reduce maternal mortality by 75%; before the year 2015 - the film will include stories from Tanzania, Bangladesh, Guatemala and the United States.
Her passion for volunteer work and dedication to conscious consumerism is exemplified by a long history of partnering with charitable organizations, both personally and through her business practices. As a daughter of a Salvadoran mother, Christy became active in the rebuilding of post-war El Salvador in the early 1990s. After losing her father to lung cancer in 1997, her activism further took root in health awareness, specifically surrounding the issue of smoking-cessation/prevention and has since grown to encompass global health as it relates to women and children.
Today she is actively focusing on Maternal and Child Health. Christy is also a spokesperson for (RED), an initiative to raise awareness and money for The Global Fund by producing products, in partnership with some of the world's largest brands, whose proceeds help provide anti-retroviral drugs to those affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa. She is currently pursuing her Masters Degree at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.
9:45 - 11:30AM
Screening: Rough Aunties
A Film by Kim Longinotto (UK 2008, 103 min)
World Cinema Jury Prize for Documentary (2009 Sundance Film Festival)
Jackie, Mildred, Eureka, Sdudla, and Thuli are the women behind Bobbi Bear, a nonprofit organization based in Durban, South Africa, that counsels sexually abused children and works to bring their abusers to justice. Born out of a recognition of cultural stigmas that discourage reporting abuse and inadequate methods of communicating with young victims, Bobbi Bear developed a method of letting children use teddy bears to explain their abuse. Since 1992, the multiracial staff has become the fearless and powerful voice for those victims who would otherwise continue to live in fear, powerless against their oppressors and ignored by the legal system.
Screening courtesy of Women Make Movies and HBO Documentary Films
11:45AM - 1:00PM
Panel: Seeing Africa Through African Eyes
There are hundreds of documentaries produced each year about Africa which are broadcast on television internationally, submitted to international film festivals and released in the US theatrically. What nearly all have in common is that those seen most widely are rarely made by Africans living in Africa. How and where are the new voices of African leadership being nurtured and given voice to their issues on an international scale? Is there a possibility for funders working in tandem with NGOs to create opportunities for African filmmakers to tell the world their own stories of development in their countries?
Speakers:
Mette Hoffmann Meyer, Head of Documentaries and Co-productions, DRTV;
Rachel Mayanja, UN Special Advisor on Gender Issues;
Ami Boghani, Program Coordinator, Maisha Film Labs (Uganda); Debra Zimmerman, Executive Director, Women Make Movies
Moderator: Sean Jacobs, Author, Assistant Professor, The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs
1:00 - 1:45PM
Lunch Break
1:45-2:15PM
A Performance by UNICEF Spokesperson Sarah Jones
Sarah Jones is a Tony Award winning playwright and performer. Her multi-character solo show, "Bridge & Tunnel" was originally produced off Broadway by Oscar winner Meryl Streep, and went on to become a critically acclaimed, long-running hit on Broadway. Educated at Bryn Mawr College and the United Nations International School, Sarah recently returned to her UN school roots by becoming an Ambassador for UNICEF as its first ever Official Spokesperson on Violence Against Children. In this capacity, Sarah is currently traveling and performing a piece developed specifically for UNICEF which is based on the Secretary General's report on violence against children. Sarah premiered this original piece in 2007 as UNICEF's representative before members of Parliament from more than 100 countries gathered in Bali, Indonesia, and continues to tour the piece with slated performances including Ethiopia, Japan, and Brazil to highlight these issues worldwide.
2:30 – 3:45PM
Screening: Pray the Devil Back to Hell
A Film by Gini Reticker and Abigail Disney (USA 2008, 72 min)
Best Documentary Feature (2008 Tribeca Film Festival)
Charles Taylor was elected president of Liberia in 1996 and soon proved to be a corrupt dictator. Opposing warlords emerged from the North and raped, murdered, and terrorized the citizens of Liberia while Charles Taylor purportedly supported them in secret. The war killed 250,000 people and displaced one million citizens. Pray the Devil Back to Hell tells the often over-looked story of how thousands of women in Liberia peacefully ended the country's second bloody civil war. Leymah Gbowee, a Liberian woman who witnessed both civil wars, had a dream: "To get the women of the church together to pray for peace." She invited ordinary mothers, grandmothers, aunts, and daughters from neighboring churches to start the Christian Women's Peace Initiative. Asatu Bah Kenneth was one of Leymah's first supporters. She happened to be Muslim. Determined to make peace, they asked, "Does the bullet know Christian from Muslim?"
Screening courtesy of Fork Films
3:45 - 5:00PM
Closing Panel: A Case Study on Envisioning the Impact of Pray the Devil Back to Hell
Abigail Disney, producer of Pray the Devil Back to Hell, is a philanthropist and activist. She first went to Liberia in 2006, about three months after Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf had been inaugurated as Liberia’s president. It was while traveling with a group of women philanthropists to see how they could assist Africa’s first female head of state that she heard the story of the Liberian women peacekeepers. In embarking on the journey of identifying a filmmaking collaborator, she also began laying the foundation for creating a film which could: speak to women in communities where there is armed conflict; expose the “developed” world’s potential donors to the issues in the film; and influence decision-makers and policy-makers who can do something at a governmental level about the importance of women in peacekeeping operations.
While the financial resources and access will undoubtedly vary significantly for others, the clarity of communicating an intended outcome by specific audiences can be broken down and applied to a variety of films at a variety of budgets for outreach, whether undertaken by a combination of filmmakers, not-for-profits, and funders. How are campaigns conceptualized? How are resources - human and financial - maximized? How can outreach campaigns work effectively in tandem with theatrical distribution or broadcasts? And for filmmakers who are not interested in assuming the responsibility for remaining married to the issues and subjects of their films, are there "bridge" networks which can assume these roles for appropriate films.
Leading the conversation with Abigal Disney is Diana Barrett, Founder and President of The Fledgling Fund, a New York based private foundation that supports films and other creative media, primarily through finishing funds and community engagement programs.
FRIDAY, MAY 15, 2009
9:00 – 9:45AM
A Conversation with Filmmaker Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme is probably best known as the Oscar-winning director of The Silence of the Lambs and for directing four different actors to Oscar-wining performances: Mary Steenburgen (Melvin and Howard), Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster (The Silence of the Lambs) and Tom Hanks (Philadelphia). In addition to making feature films, including last year's Rachel Getting Married, Demme has a long history of making documentaries - from his landmark concert film Stop Making Sense (featuring the band The Talking Heads) to his collaborations with Neil Young to biographical portraits such as 2007's Jimmy Carter Man from Plains. Demme has made two documentaries in Haiti: 1988's Haiti Dreams of Democracy and in 2003, the critically acclaimed The Agronomist, his profile of Haitian radio journalist and human rights activist Jean Dominique. The Agronomist weaves together historical footage of Haiti's troubled past with one-on-one interviews with Dominique and his devoted wife, Michele Montas (since 2007, the Spokesperson under UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon). The film also incorporates rare footage shot just before Dominique's assassination on April 30, 2000.
A long-time Haitian art enthusiast and avid collector, Jonathan Demme has been a fervent advocate for Haiti through the years. He's embraced Haiti both through his films and his collaborations with Haitian writers such as Edwidge Danticat and musicians such as RAM and Wyclef Jean.
Jonathan Demme will be joined in conversation about his work in Haiti by Eric Falt, Director, Outreach Division, Department of Public Information, United Nations.
9:45 – 11:30AM
Screening: The Glass House
A Film by Hamid Rahmanian and Melissa Hibbard (USA/Iran 2008, 92 min)
Premiered at the 2008 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam.
The Glass House skillfully examines the mostly hidden lives of young women, teetering on the fringes of Iranian society in modern Tehran. Marginalized by their families, these women have found a saving grace in a day center formed by an Iranian expatriate. Marjaneh Halati founded Omid e Mehr Center to give downtrodden young women a voice, thus empowering them with the life skills they need to succeed on their own. Many of these teens previously spent time in a jail, hospital, or state home because they had no other options.
Screening followed by a Q&A with director Hamid Rahmanian and producer Melissa Hibbard.
Screening courtesy of Fictionville Studio and Sundance Channel
11:45AM – 1:00PM
Panel: Establishing The Safety Net for Girls in Traditional Societies
In countries already taxed by strained infrastructures to support basic services concerning health, education, transportation and environmental issues, the unique concerns and needs of girls can sometimes pose an additional challenge. Often lacking equal access to society and frequently needing an advocate to fight on their behalf, millions of girls growing up in traditionally religious societies are coming of age in a world that is shrinking. What are the models of intervention and support being created and replicated worldwide and how are the voices of these girls finding an audience at home and worldwide?
Speakers:
Dory Halati, Trustee, Omid Foundation, USA; Shireen Zaman, Director Middle East and North Africa, Vital Voices Global Partnership
1:00PM
Lunch Break
1:45 – 3:15PM
Panel: The Issue is Money
In relation to creativity, documentary filmmakers are frequently advised to remember that the issue itself is not the film. However the reality is that documentaries are funded primarily because of their subject matter - by foundation or corporate mandate, through philanthropic giving serving the social good, for outreach potential by like-minded organizations, and even commercial potential around timely issues. What is important to those entities and individuals financing issue-driven work in 2009? Does the work need to speak to a global audience or a particular one? Are there un-tapped funding sources in addressing global issues through media?
Speakers:
Nina Chaudry, Senior Producer, Wide Angle; Philipp Engelhorn, Founder & Executive Director, Cinereach; Patricia Finneran, Senior Consultant, Sundance Documentary Film Program; Judith Helfand, filmmaker, Co-Founder, Chicken & Egg Pictures; Emily Verellen, Senior Program Officer, The Fledgling Fund
Moderator:
Annie Sundberg, filmmaker (The Devil Came on Horseback)
3:30 - 5:00PM
Panel: The Reality of Being the Subject
Documentary filmmakers must become adept at bearing witness to events as they unfold, without influencing outcomes or forever disrupting the lives of individuals who aren’t seeking the limelight. The presence of a camera thrust into any of our lives could at best make us self-conscious, at worst, negatively and permanently expose our lives to unwarranted scrutiny and judgment. There is a delicate balance of trust that must exist between documenter and subject. How does an NGO find a voice for a issue or a situation that will meet the needs of a filmmaker to tell a compelling story that will be typically 60 – 90 minutes and likely seen on television worldwide or the internet? Understanding the dynamic complexities and length of this relationship are what make the difference between a public service announcement and a film anchoring an outreach campaign.
Speakers:
Edet Belzberg, director, Academy Award-nominated Children Underground, The Recruiter; Gayle Ferraro, director, To Catch a Dollar: Muhammad Yunus Banks on America (working title)
Moderator:
Dan Cogan, Executive Director, Impact Partners
MAY 14 – 15, 2009
Directors Guild Theater
110 West 57th Street (6th / 7th Aves)
New York City
PURCHASE TICKETS
ONE DAY PASS
$20 Members
$25 General Public
TWO DAY PASS
$40 Members
$50 General Public
PROGRAM
12 Keynotes, Discussions, Panels and Screenings
ABOUT
Read more about The Independent Flimmaker Project and the United Nations Department of Public Information.
