Itbeginswithme Blog Stats

Today I learned how to take computer screen shots - so thought I'd post the weekly viewer stats for the Itbeginswithme blog I created, co-author and administer for UNHCR. These are stats from day one - and views have been increasing steadily. Yay! (Bet you can pick out the weekends.. and August.)

This past week - my re-post of friend, colleague and restorative justice pioneer Howard Zehr's reflections on "The Colonizing Discourse of the Other" took the lead in viewer popularity. Click here for that post.

And click here for Howard's blog on restorative justice.

Rapping at Fear - Mixed Media

Like how the young filmmaker in this Media that Matters film from Bogata mixed animation and other methods to keep this short film moving.

Nov. 12 - Webinar for oneworld.net on Video for NGO's

Online video is a powerful medium for communicating about your issues. However, organizations need to overcome a few hurdles to get started and continue online video projects on a regular basis. You don't need a large budget to get started, but you do need to get the basics right to create effective online videos.

Paulette Moore, Filmmaker, Journalist & NGO Consultant, will talk about how your organization can get started with video. She will talk about the tools you need, training required for staff and different types of video content you can produce.

This meeting will take place online and by phone. It costs $15 for staff of OneWorld partner organizations and costs $30 for others. For more information, email roshani.kothari[at]oneworld.net.

Click here for link to oneworld.

Midsemester Feedback from Research as Art and Transformation Class

Howard Zehr and I asked for mid-semester feedback in our Center for Justice and Peacebuilding Research as Art and Transformation class yesterday. Two students Brian Gumm and Ryan Beuthin were extremely creative in their response! Yay!

Scrub - A PauletteVoodle

Oh, Jay Smooth

Would that we could all think... and speak... so clearly.

Jeff Scher - Filmmaker/Animator, NYTimes Opinion Page

Speaking of Animation - this guy is lovely.

Click here for a profile in the Motionographer blog. Love that he talks about the money side of things.

First Stop Animation Ever

Working on stop animation - to teach next semester. Here is a movie the wonderful Patience Kamau and I put together this afternoon to play with the technology and concepts.

The Playful Search for Beauty

The ceramics designer Eva Zeisel looks back on a 75-year career. What keeps her work as fresh today (her latest line debuted in 2008) as in 1926? Her sense of play and beauty, and her drive for adventure.

This Guy Cracks Me Up

I'm new to Craig Ferguson - so we are still in the honeymoon phase. His reaction to the David Letterman scandal...

Elizabeth Gilbert on Creative Process

I'm trying to figure out why I didn't like the book "Eat. Pray. Love." This TED talk by author Elizabeth Gilbert about the creative process is amazing, authentic. I am going to give the book another try!

F.O.P. Series - Annabelle Hester on Interviewing

Director, producer Annabelle Hester talks about responsibility to characters, audience and client.

F.O.P. Series Ken Crawford on Interviewing

Ken Crawford, Producer and Director at the Newseum in Washington, DC. discusses the art and craft of interviewing.

Crawford Directed and Produced Running Toward Danger - a film about the journalists who covered 9/11 and The Pulitzer Photographs: A Glimpse of Life. - a series of films about Pulitzer Prize winning photographers.

Click here to view clips of the films from the Newseum website.

F.O.P. Series Christina Bavetta on Interviewing

Christina Bavetta, independent Director and Producer of non-fiction television, discusses the art and craft of interviewing on her Discovery Channel show about the 9-11 flight which crashed in Pennsylvania. The program is titled "The Flight that Fought Back".

Click here for the link to the program's website:

Morning Pages 8.19.09

Written in Nairobi, Kenya - Summer 2009. Filmed in Harrisonburg, VA.
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Morning Pages

A new Harrisonburg home in the Shenandoah Valley... the place where I began to keep morning pages as a means of discernment around life and work. This morning, I was compelled to add video to morning pages.

IRIN Launches Films about Internal Displacement

The Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN) (a humanitarian news and analysis service) recently launched “Forced to Flee” – a series of short films about internal displacement.

Around the world tens of millions of people have been forced to leave their homes. Some have been driven out by conflict, some by natural disaster. Some have been displaced in the name of development, others by climate change.

Click here to view the films.

[Photo © IRIN: A displaced (IDP) family in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh]

Participatory Media Proves Powerful Tool in Aftermath of Kenyan Violence

Media workshops and public screenings are proving powerful tools for dialogue and integration in Kenya. The country erupted in violence over the disputed election results of December 2007 when ruling president Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner over opposition leader Raila Odinga. The human and economic toll of the violence has been catastrophic for Kenyans.

Media Focus on Africa Foundation and FilmAid International will hold a 9-month series of media awareness campaigns and public workshops across Kenya to heal what remains of the animosity, uncover true reasons for the violence, and ensure the devastation does not happen again.

In this video Oceanic Oballa of Media Focus on Africa, Steve Otieno of FilmAid International and Likoni Community Leader Mishi Juma Mboko talk about the power and challenges of participatory media.



In this video, the FilmAid International team from Nairobi sets up a screening in the town of Likoni, near the coastal city of Mombasa, one of the more violent regions during 2007 violence. With their mobile advertising and huge, inflatable movie screen, the team attracted a crowd of hundreds to the town square to watch a video about a dialogue between victims and perpetrators of the violence.



Click here for FilmAid International's website

Click here for Media Focus on Africa's Website

FilmAid's Participatory Video Program in Kenyan Refugee Camp

FilmAid International is pushing the edges on what they call participatory video; involving community in producing dramatic films, talk shows, instructional videos and documentaries for social change.

In these videos...

Kakuma Refugee Camp Program Director Christopher Agutu gives an overview of the PV student program at the Kenyan camp:




Kakuma refugee students Stella Luka from Sudan and Mark Oloya from Sudan talk of their experiences as budding filmmakers with FilmAid:




Kakuma facilitators Catherine Anyango Ofwono of Uganda and Scisa Rumenge from Congo talk of the challenges and rewards of organizing the PV program:

Jimmy Carter Rails Against Religion-Based Discrimination

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter rails against the damage religion-based discrimination against women and girls does to all of society.

Read the full text in Australia's The Age by clicking here.

"The root of this prejudice lies deep in our histories, but its impact is felt every day. It is not women and girls alone who suffer. It damages all of us. The evidence shows that investing in women and girls delivers major benefits for society. An educated woman has healthier children. She is more likely to send them to school. She earns more and invests what she earns in her family." - Jimmy Carter