NYC: Barefoot Workshop Event on Sun 28th.

Back when I was exploring different organizations to write my thesis on, I came across Barefoot Workshops which trains  video production skills to youth and women in developing countries. This upcoming Sunday, the 28th, BW will be holding a seminar at B & H. 

I'm going do my best to make and hopefully will be writing a follow report.  love, M

Details: 

Sunday, September 28, 2008

B & H Photo

34th & 9th Ave
Media Empowerment & The Developing World Presented by Barefoot Workshops
Speaker: Chandler Griffin
Event Type: Video
Time: 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Barefoot Workshops is a New York City and Los Angeles based not-for-profit, founded by Chandler Griffin in 2004, that offers short, intensive workshops around the world in narrative and documentary filmmaking. In this two-hour session, Chandler Griffin will provide an overview of Barefoot’s role in using media in the developing world to help Civil Society Organizations, Non-Governmental & Governmental Organizations, and individuals make change where it is needed the most. Chandler will discuss the media tools and formats used on the ground, how to conceptualize a workshop and ways to get involved. The goal of this session is to demystify the “how can I do this?” and give individuals a chance to learn how Barefoot Workshops does it, ask all the questions and get involved. You will learn that through Barefoot’s international workshops, they offer field placements for international students to assist organizations on the ground with media projects that help them to address challenges in their communities. These “hybrid” workshops result in dynamic learning environments, and open the way for international students to gain valuable field experience, and to learn about issues firsthand. If you are interested in discovering how you can change the world through the power of digital media, come find out how Barefoot can train anyone from vastly different backgrounds and skill levels, how to blend the technical and artistic aspects of storytelling, beginning with the basics of image-making all the way through to post-production to create a “symphony” of images and sound. Barefoot Workshops hopes that by sharing “how they do it”, they will mobilize individuals to get involved and help make a difference with media.

Peace happs in Providence

(photo: jk5854)

What can I say? I'm a event junkie. A peace event junkie that's for sure. I've in Providence for all of a week and half and I have already found events to attend and communities to participate in.

First off tomorrow, Wednesday August 6th, is a forum on Iran put on by the Rhode Island Mobilization Committee to Stop War and Occupation (no website available). The event will feature Dr. Jo-Anne Hart, Dr. Kaveh Afrasibi and Abas Maliki to discuss not only the history and politics of the region but the possible consequences of any attack on Iran. To find out more about this event click here.

The Global Media Project at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies- this initiative was started to explore the significance of media on international issues. They offer a class called "Global Media in War and Peace: History, Theory and Production". And it's not all academic, they also produce "documentary media for human rights, cultural understanding, sustainable development, and global security."No mention yet on their website as to when the class is in the Fall. Wonder if I can snag a guest lecture spot like I did at Temple University last month...

Okay that's all for now. xoxo

Tokyo: Support the victims of Cyclon Nargis

Two huge natural disasters have rocked our planet earth over the past couple of weeks. With death tolls in the tens to hundreds of thousands, it's easy to feel either overwhelmed and helpless or completely unaffected by something so far away. However, theres is something that we can all do to help. In particular for the victims of Cyclone Nargis in Burma, this weekend in Tokyo, Parties 4 Peace is partnering with Sounds of Sunday Party and organizing an organic vegetarian BBQ this Sunday, May 25th.

The funds raised will go to support Save the Children www.savethechildren.org
Save the Children currently operates programs in all five of the most-affected regions and has worked in Myanmar (Burma) since 1995. As one of the largest nongovernmental organizations at work in Burma, the agency implements programs focused on early childhood care and development, child survival and child protection.

"Our staff in Burma are doing lifesaving work, but we could reach more children and families if we had the supplies that they so desperately need. Indeed, if aid continues to be restricted, the condition for thousands of children will rapidly deteriorate. Alarmingly, food prices have already risen, which means that hunger might become a problem for some families. Public health conditions could also get worse as people live close together in shelters and water supplies remain limited. Without immediate and wide-scale assistance, the situation for children looks likely to get worse before it improves."

今週の日曜日「SOUNDS on SUNDAYS」　＆　パーティーフォーピースKitchen

P4P - Parties 4 Peace & S.O.S
Presents: S.O.S. - Sounds On Sunday

5.25 [SUNDAY]
@ Oath in Shibuya [ 4 pm - 11pm ] 1000 YEN

Techno / Minimal / Electro Beats

FEATURING DJs
Anthony Mansfield (Hector Works - San Francisco)
Groove Patrol [Two Dogs]
Radarboy (Radarpop)

Tazzy [Rhythm Odyssey]
Keisho Kikuchi [Kamui Recordings]
Jasmine Jordan [ABCDGCDB]

BBQ Provided by Alishan Foods & Second Harvest
*all Organic and Vegetarian Foods*
http://www.alishan-organic-center.com
http://www.2hj.org

ACCESS:
Oath in Aoyama
MAP: http://www.aoyama-oath.com/map.html


Come and enjoy some yummy veggie kabob.

(Photo courtesy of Parties 4 Peace)

Pangaea Day

Last night at two in the morning, fifty people gathered at the United Nations University's Media Lab to participate in Pangaea Day. Pangaea Day was a world-wide internet-streaming film event in which 24 films were shared over the course of four hours in the name of global awareness and cultural understanding. Broadcast live across the globe, Japan had the lucky fortune of receiving the internet stream at 3 am and I came fully prepared with a sleeping bag to enjoy the cinematic spectacle.

The brains behind this event, filmmaker Jehane Noujaim (producer of the documentary film Control Room) won the TED Prize of $100,000 for her idea that would change the world. The idea, Pangaea day, was a mix of films, music, and speakers who focused on our common humanity while celebrating our diversities. I particularly liked that the event started with planetary scientist Carolyn Porco, reminding us of the wonder and amazement that we as human beings have come to be on a tiny pale blue dot in the vast sea of the universe. Some of the other highlights included an Israeli mother,whose son was killed by a Palestinian sniper, read a letter of reconciliation she wrote to the sniper's mother; artist and computer scientist Jonathan Harris who created the website "We feel fine" which aggregates human emotions by scanning people's blogs and photos for how they are feeling; and former child soldier Ishmael Beah.

While it's certainly possible to call elements of the event bordering on cheesy and not one particular film stood out in my mind in being outstanding (I admit I did nap a little, so I may have missed somethings), what is incredible about this event is how many of us were able to come together to simultaneous share this movie-going experience. Thousands if not millions of people gathered in front of their computers or attended one of the major event spaces in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro.

Here we see technology as the grand facilitator of this global gathering. While using satellite television is not new, (ie. Spacebridges during the Height of the Cold War), today's streaming video capabilities brought this event into our internet-equipped private homes at an unprecedented scale. When the Laughter Yoga founder, Dr Madan Kataria asked everyone to stand and join him in laughter, all of us at the UNU media lab stood up and laughed. Can you visualize thousands of people around the world standing and laughing together at the same time? This is the power of technology. As I have witnessed over the past year through the cases of Dropping Knowledge and Hometown Baghdad, I see this event as just one more example of how technology can connects us in new and deeper ways, creating awareness of our unity as one world, and allowing us to join in conversation with one another.

It's not too late to watch the event and to continue the conversation online. Just go to Pangeaday.org .


Here's a clip of our Tokyo event:

Forum: The Power of Peace Network

(courtesy of http://ppn.uwaterloo.ca/index.html)

This August, from the 7th through the 9th, The Power of Peace Network will be holding an international forum at the University of Waterloo. The Power of Peace Network is about utilizing the power of media- traditional TV and radio to online digital media- to influence and support peacebuilding.

The first Power of Peace forum was held in Bali, Indonesia in January 2007. There, "Recognized thinkers and practitioners from the public and private sectors met to strategize how best to harness the power of the media and ICTs in a practical and effective way for the purpose of building awareness, dialogue, harmony, and peace." (Power of Peace Report)

The 2008 forum will focus on : "the potential of new media as a means of encouraging cultural engagement and interaction, issues of education as it fits into the digital world, where the world of digital technology is going, how universities might participate in the creation of a global peace network."

Sounds a lot like my thesis, doesn't it? (Oh by the way which is due in a week!)

I'm very keen to attend this event and I've sent in my application, so wish me luck so that I get accepted.
xox, Megumi

Tokyo: Upcoming film festivals

For the globally conscious media junkie, there are a few film festivals coming to Tokyo that you should mark down on your calender.

1. The UNHCR Refugee Film Festival- June 2008 (The website is down at the moment...)
This will be the third year that the UNHCR Refugee film festival will be held in Tokyo. Not only do they showcase great films related to refugee issues around the world, the film festival is entirely free to the public! And on top of that a documentary film I worked on in LA (and that I have blogged about recently) Refusenik has been accepted to be screened. The date of the screening is yet TBD, but I'll be sure to update you on this. So at the very least, don't miss out on this one!

2. Tokyo Peace Film Festival- July 18-20th. This year the TPFF will be screening films such ash Iraq for Sale, American vs. Jon Lennon, and
「六ヶ所村通信」Rokkashoumura Tsushin- a film about Japan's newest nuclear reprocessing plant which has been a hot contested issues among anti-nuclear activist in Japan. I had the pleasure of meeting Kamanaka Hitomi, the director of the film, when she was a guest lecturer on Peace Boat's 53rd global voyage.


3. Artivist Film Festival- November 14-16, 2008
I first came across the Artivist film festival while I was in Los Angeles. The word Artivist came from the merging of Art + Activist, and thus their mission is to "strengthen the voice of the activist artists - 'Artivists' - while raising public awareness for social global causes." This film festival showcases stories on human rights, children's advocacy, environmental preservation and animal rights. My short film Peace Begins with Me and You was screened at their 2006 film festival at the Egyptian theater in Hollywood. I am currently submitting films to the Tokyo debut of this film festival, so wish me luck!

Images from Article 9 Peace Bike ride.

Despite the continuous torrential down pour on the days leading up to the bike ride, April 19th turned to be a pretty mild day- good enough for bike ride from Shibuya to Yoyogi park in the name of Article 9. The bikers sang songs of peace, handed out fliers and invited passersby to join the Global Article 9 conference.
Here are some video-captured stills from the Article 9 Peace bike ride:

Getting ready for their bike ride at Shibuya station.



Levi, Rob and Taka are decorating their wheels with a custom made heiwa 9 (peace) decorations.

They begin to walk/ride through the streets of Shibuya.


Shirine and Rob pass out the Global Article 9 conference flyers to pedestrians.


Jen, Levi and Jamie bike towards the Earth Day Festival at Yoyogi Park.



Next Article 9 event is :

Salsa to the Beat of 9, April 26th

Thanks to Article 9, we CAN dance salsa in peace!

Salsa to the Beat of 9
April 26th, 7pm-11pm
Cuban Cafe, 〒104-0045　東京都中央区築地5-6 10浜離宮パークサイドプレイス１F
http://www.geocities.co.jp/cubancafe2005/
Contact: Jennifer at jteeterpeaceboat.gr.jp for more details:)

Tokyo: Countdown to the Global Article 9 Conference

We are a few weeks away from the Global Article 9 conference (May 4-6). In the lead up to it, many activities are taking place in Tokyo and the surrounding areas.

On Saturday April 19th, Peace Boat is organizing a peace bike ride for Article 9. The bike ride begins at 11am at Hachiko exit at Shibuya and participants will ride to the Earth Day festivities at Yoyogi Park.

Event:	Peace Bike Ride for A9
Tagline:	"Join us for a day of cycling to support A9, the peace constitution"
Host:	Peace Boat

Time and Place

Date:	Saturday, April 19, 2008
Time:	11:00am - 2:00pm
Location:	Shibuya, Tokyo
Street:	Hachiko exit, Shibuya eki
City/Town:	Tokyo, Japan

Peace Walk for Article 9
Also, since the end of February, several hardcore peace activists have been walking from Hiroshima towards Tokyo, aiming to arrive on the first day of the conference. You can read up more about them and their Peace Walk here. I am hoping to join them at some point and film some of their activities as well, all pending on the progress of my thesis.

Refusenik film: Trailer

Please click on the image below to watch the trailer for the documentary film Refusenik:

Refusenik film: Theater Release!

Hello~!
I am happy to announce a documentary film that I worked on back when I was living in LA will have a theatrical release. Please go to it if you can, not only for my sake, but because it is an inspiring story of a grassroots movement that spanned 30 years and which ultimately lead to the human rights victory and freedom of 2 million Soviet Jews.
To find more about the film, visit:
http://www.refusenikmovie.com/
and forward this information on!

love,
Megumi

----------------

RELEASE DATES:

SEATTLE

April 11th, 2008

Landmark Varsity Theatre

4329 University Way N.E.

Seattle, WA 98105

(206) 781-5755 http://www.landmarktheatres.com/market/Seattle/VarsityTheatre.htm

SAN FRANCISCO

April 11th, 2008

Landmark Lumiere Theatre

1572 California St. at Polk

San Francisco, CA 94109

(415) 267-4893 http://www.landmarktheatres.com/market/SanFrancisco/LumiereTheatre.htm

PORTLAND

April 18, 2008

Regal Fox Tower Stadium 10

846 SW Park Avenue

Portland, OR 97205

(503) 221-3280

NEW YORK

May 9th, 2008

The Quad Cinema

34 West 13th Street

New York, NY 10011

(212) 255-8800

link: http://www.quadcinema.com/

LOS ANGELES

May 23, 2008

Laemmle's Music Hall

9036 Wilshire Blvd.

Beverly Hills, CA 90211

(310) 274-6869

Tokyo: International Symposium on the Media's Role in Historical Reconciliation

This Saturday, April 5th, there will be a symposium on the Media's role in Historical Reconciliation at the Goeth Institute in Akasaka, Tokyo. The details on the Goeth Institute website is in German, but I was forwarded the email in English last week. Sorry for not posting earlier.
Particularly I am interested in the second panel discussion on whether journalists can be peacemakers? This is a question that came up during my peace journalism course at Transcend University. Also, Hans-Robert Eisenhauer, the producer of the documentary Why We Fight (2005) will be in attendance. I had the pleasure of attending a screening of this film in LA with the director Eugene Jarecki present. The film is about the US military-industrial-complex and it is on my must-see list.

Details:

International Symposium

Peacemakers or Powder Monkeys – the Role of the Media in Post-WWII History Debates in Europe and Northeast Asia

Date and time: April 5, 2008, 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m

Place: Goethe-Institut Japan, 7-5-56 Akasaka, Minato-ku. Tokyo 107- 0052
Co-organized by: -- Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Tokyo Office (FES)

-- International Center for the Study of Historical Reconciliation at Tokyo Keizai University (TKU)
-- Goethe-Institut Japan in Tokyo

In recent months, the long shadow of World War II seems for a time to have lifted from the map of East Asia. New leaders in China, Korea and Japan are making efforts to put a difficult past behind them. But is this the beginning of a permanent reconciliation or just a lull in an ongoing war of words? This month, a dispute over contaminated dumplings imported from China unleashed a torrent of such unrelentingly critical coverage in the Japanese media that an official visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao had to be postponed. The US Marine Corps dictionary defines a powder monkey as one who carries explosives to gun crews on a battleship. Reporters everywhere have plied their trade by stoking the fires of nationalism. But is the media also not capable of promoting peace? Japanese, Chinese, and Korean reporters have been meeting for years in attempts to confront the past. In Europe, ARTE TV funded jointly by French and German tax-payers, beams programs on public affairs and the arts, simultaneously in two languages. Might a similar multi-lingual network be established in Asia one day? Or should we pin our hopes on the Internet to forge shared perceptions of past and future?

Keynote speakers:

Hans-Robert Eisenhauer, ZDF; former deputy chief of programming ARTE

Yoshibumi Wakamiya, chief editorial writer, Asahi Shimbun;

Panelists:

Tetsuya Chikushi; host of TBS nightly news hour

Chung Ku-Chong; President, Donga.com, Seoul

William Horsley; former BBC bureau chief, Tokyo, Bonn

Yasushi Kudo; founder Genron NPO, coordinator of annual China-Japan media meetings

Park Cheol-Hee; professor, political science, Seoul National University

Program

10:00 – 10:15 Registration and Greetings

Markus WERNHARD, Head of Arts, Goethe-Institut Tokyo

Andrew HORVAT, Visiting Professor, Tokyo Keizai University

TBA Japan Representative, Friedrich Ebert Foundation

10:15 – 12:00 Roundtable: The Internet: Bridge or Barrier to Forging a Shared Vision of the Past in Northeast Asia

Dr Chung Kuchong, President, Donga.com,

Iris Georlette, Japan correspondent, Ha'aretz

12:00 – 13:00 lunch break

13:00 – 14:45 Panel 1: The Art of ARTE – Telling the Same Story to Two Audiences

　　　

Speaker: Hans-Robert Eisenhauer, ZDF; former deputy chief of programming at the joint French-German TV network ARTE; producer; “Why We Fight,” winner of prize for best documentary at Sundance Film Festival 2005

Panelists:

Tetsuya Chikushi; host, TBS nightly news hour

William Horsley; formerly BBC bureau chief, Tokyo, Bonn

14:45 – 15:15 Coffee Break

15:15 – 17:00 Panel 2: Can Journalists be Peacemakers?　

Speaker: Yoshibumi Wakamiya, chief editorial writer, the Asahi Shimbun; author of The Postwar Conservative View of Asia: How
the Political Right has Delayed Japan's Coming to Terms With its
History of Aggression in Asia

Panelists:

Yasushi Kudo; founder and head, Genron NPO

Park Cheol-Hee; professor, political science, Seoul National University

17:00 – 17:30 　 Free discussion

17:30 Buffet reception

Simultaneous English-Japanese translation available;
Admission is free but participants are kindly requested to register in advance using the reply form sent as separate attachment.

Los Angeles: A Path for Peace

Much of my early peace activism began with working on the campaign to establish a cabinet level Department of Peace. Since 2003, the campaign has been pushing legislature through congress as well as building a culture of peace.

What is a culture of peace?
According to the UNESCO, a culture of peace is:
a set of values, attitudes, modes of behaviour and ways of life that reject violence and prevent conflicts by tackling their root causes to solve problems through dialogue and negotiation among individuals, groups and nations.

To me, a culture of peace is also creating a sense of appreciation for peace, where people understand the value that peace has to offer and thus want to encourage its presence.


So if you live in LA, here's a way in which you can help build a culture of peace:

On April 18, 2008, the California chapter of the DOP campaign will be organizing "A Path for Peace. " They will be building a meditative labyrinth out of sand on Hermosa Beach Pier in which they will invite you contemplate peace as you walk.
To find out more about the event or if you are interested in volunteering, visit their website.

A Path for Peace
Saturday, April 19, 2008

1:00 pm
Welcome Ceremony

1:00 – 3:00 pm
Labyrinth Walk and Peace Celebration
Everyone is welcome!

3:15 pm
Children's Labyrinth Walk

*******************

On the beach –
Just north of the Hermosa Beach Pier

New York: Satyagraha Walk

So in attempt to be more active on my blog, I hope to be writing regularly on stories and events related peace, media, technology, human rights, Japan, New York and any where else in the world.

I came across this today through one of my email list serves and once again wished I was in New York to participate.


The Satya Graha Forum is organizing the Be the Change Walk which starts at four different points through out Manhattan and converges at Union Square, where unbeknownst to many stands a statue of Gandhi. This is the kick off event for Metropolitan Opera's presentation of Philip Glass's (composer) Satayagraha at Lincoln Center. Glass, journalist Gustav Neibuhr and Vishakha N. Desai will discuss Gandhi's legacy at an event on April 23rd.
To view the events line up for the month of April click here.

The walk starts at 1pm on April 6th from the following locations:

NORTH:	New York Public Library 5th Avenue & 42nd St.
EAST:	Sara D. Roosevelt Park E. Houston St. & Chrystie St.
SOUTH:	City Hall Park (South end) Broadway & Park Row
WEST:	Chelsea Park 9th Ave. & 27th St.

They estimate that the walk will take between 30-40 minutes. Afterwards, there will be a Flower Petal Ceremony to commemorate Gandhi's life.