- Cinema for Peace Foundation
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The Cinema for Peace Foundation is a registered, non-profit organization based in Berlin, Germany. It supports film-based projects dealing with global humanitarian and environmental issues.[1]
Contents
History
The Cinema for Peace Foundation was founded in 2008 building on the successful outcome of the annual Cinema for Peace Gala, which started in 2002. Since then, the Cinema for Peace Foundation has been running internally originated, cinema-based humanitarian projects.
Cinema for Peace Foundation Projects
The Cinema for Peace Foundation German School Film Catalogue. The Cinema for Peace Foundation School Film Catalogue covers issues such as war, human rights and discrimination. The Foundation works with teachers and students in German public schools to use the catalogue as a catalyst for further inquiry into the issues covered by the films.
Bosnian Genocide Film Library. The Cinema for Peace Foundation is conducting and archiving video interviews with victims of the Bosnian War, to record their experiences for a publicly accessible library for researchers, students and other interested parties. Hasan Nuhanovic, a survivor of the Srebrenica genocide,[2][3] runs the project, which is based in Sarajevo
Safe Keeping Darfur. In 2010, the Cinema for Peace Foundation distributed 200 motion sensitive, mini-video cameras, laptop computers and satellite uplinks, to humanitarian workers in refugee camps in Darfur to discourage people from committing crimes against refugees, as well as to collect evidence against the perpetrators to be used in criminal trials.
Green Film Online Platform. The Cinema for Peace Foundation hosts a platform on its website to enable access to environmentally conscience films, supported by the foundation and also allow visitors to screen some short films about the environment for free.
Film Against AIDS. In 2010, the Cinema for Peace Foundation organized a screening of the film, Themba - A Boy Called Hope for school children in Cape Town, South Africa, introduced by the Nobel Peace Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The screenings of the film were later extended to nine further rural South African provinces to raise awareness about AIDS prevention.[4] In December 2010, the Foundation expanded the program to 60 German public schools.
Trailer of the Day.The Trailer of the Day is a daily movie recommendation, issued by the Cinema for Peace Foundation, on various current political topics. There are many valuable movies and documentaries listed in the ‘Cinema for Peace Selection’ picking up pressing global issues, which often put easily forgettable short news announcements into a broader context thus offering a new way to approach news stories. Registered persons on the Cinema for Peace mailing list receive the “Trailer of the Day” recommendations as links to short video clips informing about movies and documentaries dealing with acute and long term challenges of our time, which also means in particular for low-budget-productions an interesting way of increasing attention.
Cinema for Peace Foundation Screenings. On a regular basis the Cinema for Peace Foundation arranges for freely accessible special film screenings accompanied by directors and/or actors involved in the production to illustrate and help raise further awareness for areas of need as well as initiate change.
Cinema for Peace Foundation Awareness Programs
Berlinger Petition. The Cinema for Peace Foundation initiated a petition to support filmmaker Joe Berlinger, winner of the International Green Film Award at Cinema for Peace 2010, in his defence against a lawsuit by the Chevron Oil Company. In 2010, a U.S. District Court ordered Berlinger to surrender 600 hours of outtakes from his documentary, Crude.[5] The film depicts a lawsuit by indigenous people against the Chevron Oil Company for environmental destruction allegedly caused by the company's activities in Ecuador. On appeal, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals ultimately limited the amount of footage that Berlinger was required to provide.[6]
Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani Awareness Campaign. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, an Iranian mother of two was convicted of adultery in 2006 and later sentenced to death by stoning. Her execution was postponed, though not commuted. In support of Ms. Ashtiani, the Cinema for Peace Foundation organized a press conference, attended by Ms. Ashtiani's lawyer and human rights campaigners on August 18, 2010, that included a screening of the film, The Stoning of Soraya M. directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh.[7], winner of the Cinema for Peace Award for Justice 2010. The foundation later mailed DVD copies of The Stoning of Soraya M. to United States Senators, members of the German Parliament and authorities in the Islamic Republic of Iran, demanding the halt of execution by stoning and the immediate release of Ms. Ashtiani.
Burma Petition. In February 2011, the Cinema for Peace Foundation organized a petition together with Burmese human rights activist and Nobel Peace Price laureate Aung San Suu Kyi[8] to demand the release of the Burmese comedian Zarganar and the removal of a work ban imposed on actor U Kyaw Thu.[9] Zarganar was sentenced to 35 years imprisonment for speaking to the foreign media and openly criticizing the Burmese government's failute to aid victims of cyclone Norgis. U Kyaw Thu has been banned from acting for openly opposing state censorship in Burma.
Cinema for Peace Foundation Special Initiatives
Special Evening on Justice. Together with the Trust Fund for Victims and the International Criminal Court, the Cinema for Peace Foundation organized a Special Evening on Justice on the eve of the Review Conference of the International Criminal Court Statute in Kampala, Uganda.[10] Ban Ki-moon recognized the Cinema for Peace Foundation in his remarks, "Let me applaud Cinema for Peace. Every time you and your friends from the creative community reach out to help people to learn about human rights and justice, you help the UN to keep the peace.[11]"
Special Evening on Africa. The Cinema for Peace Foundation organized a Special Evening on Africa on September 19, 2010 at the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Summit in New York. Supporter Bob Geldof and MDG Co-Chair and Rwandan President Paul Kagame spoke at the event to call for adherence to the Millennium Development Goals of 2000.
Green Evening:Into the Cold - A Journey of the Soul Screening. On November 12, 2010 the Foundation hosted a Green Evening with British actor Orlando Bloom in Berlin to promote Sebastian Copeland's movie, Into the Cold - A Journey of the Soul. The film retraces two men's expedition to the North Pole covering over 400 miles on foot, while documenting the rapidly vanishing polar environment.
Nobel Peace Prize Screening. On Human Rights Day, December 10, 2010, the Cinema for Peace Foundation, Amnesty International, Movies that Matter and the Human Rights Film Network organized an internationally coordinated screening of Moving the Mountain in honor of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo.[12] The screenings were scheduled to take place on the day Xiaobo would have personally received his Nobel Peace Prize had he not been in prison in China. The film was shown in Berlin, The Hague, the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, and the Human Rights Film Festivals in Vienna, Warsaw and Amman. Moving the Mountain is a 1994 documentary by Michael Apted that depicts the student led democracy movement of 1989 in Tiananmen Square.
Dinner for Tibet. The Cinema for Peace Foundation organized a film program and dinner to support Tibetan culture on the occasion of the last visit of the 14th Dalai Lama in Wiesbaden in August 2011.
Dinner and Symposium on the Issue of Child Soldiers. The Foundation also supported a symposium on the issue of “Child Soldiers” conducted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague in August 2011 expanding this encounter by film screenings and a charity dinner. The event was to accompany the final declaration of the historically remarkable “Lubanga Case”, in which for the first time that Congolese rebel leader was held accountable for violating the ban on the recruitment and use of child soldiers as formulated in article 8, paragraph 2 of the Rome Statute. Former child soldiers attended the encounter as well a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie and the UN Special Representative on Children in Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy. All parties involved phrased a petition in which all UN member states are called upon to condemn the use of child soldiers, to fight the use of sexual violence in war and to make efforts to prevent that schools and hospitals become targets of armed attacks.
Celebration of First Ever Logo for Human Rights The first ever logo for human rights was celebrated at an event in New York hosted by the Cinema for Peace Foundation on Friday 23 September 2011. The new design which brings to mind both a human hand and a bird in flight was created by Serbian designer Predrag Stakic. Stakic's logo is the winner of an online contest, and was chosen from more than 15,000 entries which were submitted by designers in 190 countries. Among the guests were Robert de Niro and the German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and various human rights defenders as the mother and the sister of Mohamed Bouazizi, whose self-immolation brought about the Arab Spring. In a video message Aung San Suu Kyi said, "I look forward to a time when this logo will be seen all over the world (...). I hope that little children and babies will see it and it will be a sign of happiness, peace and security to them."[13]
Funding
The Cinema for Peace Foundation is funded through private donations and from parts of the proceeds of the annual Cinema for Peace Gala and its related charity auction.[14][15] . The Cinema for Peace Foundation is politically, financially and morally completely independent.
References
- ^ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vivian-norris-de-montaigu/in-praise-of-cinema-for-p_b_465166.html
- ^ http://www.ushmm.org/genocide/take_action/gallery/portrait/nuhanovic
- ^ http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/bosnia502/interviews_hasan.html
- ^ http://www.forum.org.za/Themba-Free-community-screenings-and-public-dialogues-W-Cape
- ^ http://blogs.findlaw.com/second_circuit/2011/01/chevron-corp-v-berlinger-no-10-1918.html
- ^ http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/filmmaker-ordered-to-give-testimony-in-chevron-case/
- ^ http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5921692,00.html
- ^ http://www.moviesthatmatterfestival.nl/english_index/nieuws_en/news/146
- ^ http://www.moviesthatmatterfestival.nl/english_index/programma_en/film_en/458
- ^ http://www.icc-cpi.int/Menus/ASP/ReviewConference/PreReview+Conference/
- ^ http://www.icc-cpi.int/Menus/ASP/ReviewConference/PreReview+Conference
- ^ http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1012/10/ctw.01.html
- ^ http://www.mail.com/cinema-for-peace/714052-human-rights-logo-unveiled-york.html
- ^ Celebrity Charitable Contribution website, http://www.looktothestars.org
- ^ Schedule of 2010 Donation Usage on Foundation website - http://www.cinemaforpeace-foundation.com/usage-of-donations/useofdonations/view
External links
Categories:- Non-profit corporations
- Charities based in Germany
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