If You Could Tell A Story & Change the World, What Would it Look Like?
May 12, 2010 by William Poor
We knew we had a project with real potential when actor/director Gael García Bernal (The Motorcycle Diaries, Y Tu Mamá También) said he’d help out as a judge with Link TV’s ViewChange Online Film Contest. We’re looking for short films about achieving the UN’s Millenium Development Goals, and Bernal has already made a short of his own. So has director Wim Wenders, and he’s agreed to be a judge as well. So who better to consider shorts from other filmmakers who also want their stories to change the world?
Here at Link TV, we know that stories are powerful. A well-told story can influence how we think and act, and we have spent the past ten years finding stories from around the world that encourage Americans to think, and act, globally. The world continues to shrink, and as that happens, the struggles of people living off just a dollar or two a day seem closer and closer to us.
We decided that we want to shine a spotlight on the challenges and successes of life in developing countries - and to do so we've launched the ViewChange Online Film Contest. This new contest challenges filmmakers to tell a story, in five minutes or less, about a person or group working to improve the lives of those in developing countries. Videos could be about a group working to make clean water available to a village in rural Africa; about an entrepreneur opening a small business in India with help from microfinance; about doctors committed to reducing infant mortality rates in South America. There are countless stories to be told, and we want the filmmaking community to discover and tell a few of the best.
Some details: the ViewChange Online Film Contest is open for submissions between now and August 31st, 2010. Filmmakers can enter films in any genre: documentary, drama, music video, animation – you name it. Films must address one or more Millennium Development Goals (more on that below), and can be submitted into any of the six categories we’ve created:
- Sustainability
- Innovation
- Overcoming Conflict
- Empowerment
- Leadership and Government
- Local/Global Partnerships
Great videos have a chance to win big: we’re offering $5,000 to the best video in each category, and an overall Grand Prize of $20,000. Finalists will be determined by online viewers from around the world, who can watch and comment on the submissions at www.ViewChangeFilmContest.org. The winners themselves will be chosen by a panel of distinguished judges, including: actor/director Danny Glover, actor/director Gael García Bernal, director Wim Wenders, US Senator Daniel Inouye, award-winning author Chimamanda Adichie, and others.
It turns out that 2010 is a good year to be interested in development goals: in September of this year, the United Nations will convene to discuss the progress made in their Millennium Development Goals. These goals were codified in 2000 by the UN, and aim to raise the global standard of living in a number of significant ways by 2015. The goals pledge to reduce extreme hunger and poverty, improve maternal and child health, combat HIV/AIDS, promote gender equality, improve education, protect the environment, and foster local-global partnerships. We're excited by the global commitment that these goals represent, and we're looking for short films that reflect progress being made towards reaching them.
The ViewChange Online Film Contest is a part of ViewChange.org, an ambitious online media hub that Link TV is building. When it launches this fall, ViewChange.org will be a one-stop shop for videos and other multimedia content on the subject of global development. Winning films from the film contest will be featured on this new platform (we’ll also broadcast them nationally on Link TV).
With this new contest, we want to show the world that committed individuals and organizations are making a huge difference in the developing world. To submit a film, watch others’ films, or to learn more about the project, go to www.ViewChangeFilmContest.org. You’ll see that these stories really can change the world.
