FEATURED NEWS
Rose Mapendo Honored by the United Nations
Dear Friends of Rose & Nangabire,
Recently Rose Mapendo, the subject of our upcoming film Rose & Nangabire was the recipient of the Humanitarian of the Year Award from the United Nations’ Refugee Agency (UNHCR). We were in DC to film the event, which included presentations by Angelina Jolie and Ann Curry from NBC’s Today. The event featured a clip from our film showcasing Rose’s international work. Rose gave an emotional and effective speech about the plight of refugees and the importance of maintaining world focus on the issues, illustrated by her personal story. This was also the first time Nangabire had the opportunity to see her mother at work. Nangabire is adapting well to her new life. She comfortably chatted (in English!) with other guests at a party, relaxed in her hotel room with her mother, and joined in a photo shoot for the Boston Globe.
We are eager to bring this new material into our edit room. We started editing in early May with award-winning editor Mona Davis (LOVE & DIANE). We have made real progress on the film and are amazed at the richness and complexity of the footage. However, our edit budget will only last another 6 weeks, at which point we risk losing Mona (as well as missing the Sundance Film Festival entry deadline). We are grateful to you and to all of our donors and supporters, without whom we could not have come this far. Out of a deep commitment to this important story of peace and family, we feel obliged to ask if you can contribute more to enable us to continue the edit or if you would be willing to ask a friend or a colleague to join you in your support. Every contribution gets us that much closer to a finished film.
All donations are tax deductible. Please consider donating online or sending a check made out to Arts Engine to 104 West 14th Street, #4, New York, NY 10011, and be sure to include Rose & Nangabire in the memo line.
Published on July 15
From Your Arts Engine Peers: A $10,000 CHALLENGE
Dear Friends of Arts Engine:
During a time of newly found optimism, we are asking you to join us in making an online donation to one of our favorite organizations, Arts Engine—the folks who bring us the Media That Matters Film Festival, MediaRights.org, Big Mouth Films and DocuClub. As your peers in the independent media world, we feel it is important to band together to keep the organizations we love in good working order.
Arts Engine received a $10,000 challenge grant from one of its strongest local supporters, Guy Lancaster and his family at the Still Point Fund. If all of us reading this letter now donate $35 or more, Arts Engine can reach the $10,000 level and meet Guy’s challenge in no time. All fifteen of us made a donation to kick things off. Won’t you join us?
Click here to support the Peer2Peer Campaign.
By making a donation to this Peer2Peer campaign as a community, we are making a statement to all stakeholders of social-issue media and documentary film that we value the work that Arts Engine does.
Join us and make a contribution now. The amount is not as important as 100% participation. Consider contributing $35, $100, $250, $500 or more.
Click here to support the Peer2Peer Campaign.
Click here to look at what Arts Engine is up to in 2009.
Your donation will help to ensure that:
- The ninth collection of Media That Matters streams and screens in more classrooms, community organizations and on more computers across the country and around the world than ever before
- MediaRights.org’s new exciting content, to be launched this summer, reaches a greater numbers with more in-depth coverage (Stay tuned!)
- Big Mouth Films finishes a rough cut of its current feature documentary, Rose & Nangabire
- DocuClub’s monthly screenings continue to positively impact our work and make a rich contribution to the field
Thank you for joining us in this Peer2Peer Campaign for Arts Engine. Your support is important for Arts Engine and for the field of independent social-issue media.
Your peers,
Barbara Abrash, Director of Public Programs, Center for Media, Culture and History & Center for Religion and Media, New York University
Phil Bertelsen, Director, Outside Looking In
Sharese Bullock, Producer, Off and Running; Media/Communications Strategist, The Young People’s Project
Wendy Cohen, Co-founder, Screening Liberally
Laurie Collyer, Director, Sherrybaby
Marshall Curry, Director, Street Fight
Ben Herson, Founder, Nomadic Wax
Susan Kaplan, Founder, DocuClub
Ross Kauffman, Director, Born Into Brothels
Sam Kauffmann, 2009 Guggenheim Fellow
Julia Pimsleur, Founder & President, Little Pim
Kimberly Reed, Director, Prodigal Sons
Lynn True and Nelson Walker, Co-Founders/Directors, The Kham Film Project
Andrew Walton, Director, Arctic Son
Published on June 09
Media and Advocacy Special Presentation
Please join us for a special presentation from the filmmakers of the documentary film Rose & Nangabire on:
Rose Mapendo was separated from her daughter, Nangabire, when ethnic violence came to her village in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Over a decade later, mother and daughter are reunited in the United States. Through the eyes of this remarkable pair, Rose & Nangabire explores the effects of conflict on women, and the role of women in bringing peace and reconciliation to war-torn countries.
Screening video footage from Rose & Nangabire, the filmmakers and the film’s cultural consultant will discuss the use of media in activism and advocacy.
Who:
Beth Davenport & Elizabeth Mandel, filmmakers
Marie-Claudine Mukamabano (survivor of genocide in Rwanda), artist, activist and cultural consultant
When: Monday, June 15th, 12:30-1:30pm
Where: Classroom of Dr. Theresa Nona
Lehman College, Room 212, Carman Hall
250 Bedford Park Boulevard West, Bronx, NY 10468
(by subway, take the 4 to Kingsbridge or the D to Bedford)
Free and open to the public
For more information, call 646-230-6228 x235 or visit www.artsengine.net/rose_and_nangabire
Special thanks to Dr. Theresa Nona and Lehman College.
Beth Davenport and Elizabeth Mandel are 2008 Artists’ Fellowship recipients of the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA). This presentation is co-sponsored by Artists & Audiences Exchange, a public program of NYFA.
Published on June 09
Arts Engine’s Ninth Annual Media That Matters Film Festival WORLD PREMIERE!
Arts Engine is pleased to announce the world premiere of the
ninth annual Media That Matters Film Festival in New York City!
Media That Matters: MORE THAN A FESTIVAL
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
6:00 - impACT salon
7:00 - Screening
School of Visual Arts (SVA)
Visual Arts Theater
333 West 23rd Street
New York, NY
The theater is accessible by wheelchair.
Join us for the world premiere of the ninth annual Media That Matters Film Festival! Be among the first to see the 12 inspiring short films we selected this year. Arrive early to take part in the impACT salon for Take Action opportunities and a chance to meet the festival filmmakers!
Buy your tickets today before they sell out!
After the official launch on June 3,
we invite you to Screen. Act. Impact.
Media That Matters: MORE THAN A FESTIVAL.
SCREEN the collection of jury-selected films online, at home or in your community.
- Stream all our films and follow news updates on our website mediathatmattersfest.org
- Join one of the hundreds of film screenings worldwide
- Watch the films from our partner sites such as Netflix, Miro, iTunes.
- Purchase the annual festival DVD or create a customized collection based on theme, audience or genre
ACT now to make a change.
- Follow the Take Action Links connected with each film and learn about organizations working closely with each social issue
- Download our free Discussion Guide for tools and resources to use with audiences
- Organize a Do-It-Yourself screening to inspire change in your own community or school and check our website for more screening tools
- Create your own film – documentary, animation, fiction & even music videos and submit your piece to our next Media That Matters Collection
IMPACT your community by incorporating short films with on-the-ground activism.
- Share Media That Matters with your own film festival, conference, workshop or your local broadcast channel
- Become a member of MediaRights.org to read up on and dialogue with other online members committed to the field of social-issue media
- Send us feedback and stories about how Media That Matters was used in your community – this helps us speak greater about the work YOU are doing
- Support the festival either by becoming a partner or a future sponsor
Published on May 21
May DocuClub Screening at 92YTribeca
DocuClub’s next rough cut screening is Parting The Waters, by Josh Waletzky and Jenny Levison. Parting the Waters follows African-American Olympic swimmers Maritza Correia and Cullen Jones, and three talented young black and Latino swimmers coming up behind them, in a fish-out-of water story that takes place in the water. The screening date is May 27, 2009. Visit DocuClub.org to find out how you can attend and become a member!
Published on May 21
Kim Longinotto and Documentary Filmmaking
DocuClub is proud to co-present this session of the Women Make Movies Master Class filmmaking series featuring Kim Longinotto, purveyor of cinéma vérité and lauded by critics for her sensitive treatment of groundbreaking subject matter. At the event, Longinotto will share clips, documentary techniques, working experiences, as well as craft and process from her 30+ year career as a documentarian. Debra Zimmerman, Executive Director of Women Make Movies, will moderate the event.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
1-4 p.m.
Location: DCTV, 87 Lafayette Street, 3rd Fl Studio
RSVP here: https://www.123signup.com/event?id=zhnzn
$50 for DocuClub members and members of co-sponsoring organizations
$75 for everyone else
Become a DocuClub member at www.artsengine.net/store/#tools_consul!
RSVP soon as seating is very limited!
Published on May 04
Gaming Prodigy Film to Screen at DocuClub
DocuClub’s next rough cut, Lil Poison by Beth Earl, tells the story of five-year-old Victor De Leon III, the youngest professional video game player in the world. Screening tomorrow night, April 29, 2009. Read more.
Published on April 28
Arts Engine Survey: Last Chance to Win a Flip Camera
Please take our survey, like MediaRights member Stacey Brook did, and help Arts Engine better serve its membership. The 2008-2009 survey will close April 22 and we will announce the Flip camera winner in the next newsletter.
MediaRights.org member Stacey Brook said, “Filling out this survey was actually pretty enlightening. It’s interesting to see the issues that are on my fellow media makers’ minds, distilled and categorized. And thanks for keeping it short and sweet. Also, I will happily fill out any survey in the future in which you award a Flip camera to a random participant. Did I win??!!”
Published on April 15