Al Gore chooses Garbage Dreams as winner of his Reel Current Award.

The extraordinary insight Garbage Dreams provides into a contemporary global issue was recognized by Al Gore last week at the Nashville Film Festival where he awarded Director, Mai Iskander, with the Reel Current Award.

"GARBAGE DREAMS is a moving story of young men searching for a ways to eke out a living for their families and facing tough choices as they try to do the right thing for the planet. Mai Iskander guides us into a 'garbage village,' a place so different from our own, and yet the choices they face there are so hauntingly familiar.

Ultimately, GARBAGE DREAMS makes a compelling case that modernization does not always equal progress."
- Al Gore

Garbage Dreams has also picked up the following awards: Best Documentary at Bermuda International Film Festival, Best Documentary at Vail Film Festival, World Cinema Best Director at Phoenix Film Festival and now Al Gore Reel Current Award at Nashville Film Festival. The film had its World Premiere at the SXSW 2009 Film Festival.

About the film:
"Garbage Dreams" follows three teenage boys born into the trash trade and growing up in the world's largest garbage village, on the outskirts of Cairo. It is the home to 60,000 Zaballeen, Arabic for "garbage people." Far ahead of any modern "Green" initiatives, the Zaballeen survive by recycling 80 percent of the garbage they collect. When their community is suddenly faced with the globalization of its trade, each of the teenage boys is forced to make choices that will impact his future and the survival of his community.
Check out www.garbagedreams.com

Call for entries for Council on Foundations and GFEM's 43rd Annual Film & Video Festival

The Council on Foundations and Grantmakers in Film + Electronic Media (GFEM) are seeking submissions of films and videos for its 43rd Annual Film & Video Festival, to be held April 25 - 27, 2010 in Denver, CO.

THE FILM & VIDEO FESTIVAL
The festival showcases films, videos, and television programs that have received support from foundations, corporate giving programs, and donor networks, with the aim of encouraging grantmakers to use media to advance their philanthropic goals. The festival promotes foundation support of creative, high-quality productions that expand the boundaries of the use of media for the social good.

Submissions may target local, state, regional, national, and international audiences. The committee will give special consideration to projects that demonstrate innovative strategies for distribution, outreach, public education, and civic engagement, such as the use of print or broadcast journalism, websites, networking, schools, libraries, or the meetings and conferences of nonprofit organizations.

ELIGIBILITY
To be eligible, projects must have received full or partial funding for either production or distribution from a private, community, operating, or corporate foundation; a corporate giving program; or a donor network. The grantmaker does not have to be a member of the Council or GFEM. The Council will not consider submissions that have been funded solely by public agencies or federal or state grants. The films and videos must have been completed within the past two years. Works may be of any length-from feature length to a brief public service announcement. No works in progress will be considered. All submission forms, DVDs and entry fees must be received by June 26, 2009.

Please visit http://www.fundfilm.org/index.cfm for more information.

Lynn Hershman awarded Guggenheim Fellowship

Congratulations to Chicken & Egg grantee, Lynn Hershman, who has been awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship.

Guggenheim Fellows are appointed on the basis of stellar achievement and exceptional promise for continued accomplishment. One of the hallmarks of the Guggenheim Fellowship program is the diversity of its Fellows. Guggenheim Fellowships are intended for men and women who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts.

Lynn was awarded a 2007 grant for her project A (Formerly) Secret History of the Feminist Art Revolution., a documentary film that will annotate the evolution of the Feminist Art Movement in the United States from 1968 to the present and reveal, through interviews, art, and rarely seen archival film and video footage, how the Movement radically transformed the art of our times. The Feminist Art Movement introduced the concepts of social protest, collaboration, and public art, and it remains characteristically uncompromising in its investigations of art that directly addresses personal issues as well as the political imperatives of social justice and civil rights. Over time, the tenacity and courage of these pioneering women artists paid off, and the Movement became what many historians now feel is the most significant art movement of the late 20th century.

Garbage Dreams is unstoppable on festival circuit!

Congratulations once again to Mai Iskander and team Garbage Dreams who picked up two more awards at the Phoenix Film Festival: Best International Director and Best International Audience Choice Award. Mai had just come from winning Best Documentary at the Vail Film Festival.

Visit http://www.garbagedreams.com/ for more about Garbage Dreams.

Story Leads to Action continues with Jesse Epstein's series - Body Typed

Please join us, Working Films and special co-hosts The Fledgling Fund and Rooftop Films, for a special evening celebrating the power of the SHORT to engage, enrage, entertain and initiate long term transformation.

FEATURING
Jesse Epstein's "B o d y T y p e d"
a series of award-winning shorts exploring every angle (and then some) about body image

WET DREAMS AND FALSE IMAGES ('02)
THE GUARANTEE ('04)
34 x 25 x 36 ('07)
SKIN a work-in-progress/rough-cut (to be released in 09/10)

This evening is dedicated to that gorgeous moment when the movie stops and the lights come up, the YouTube ends, and the audience wants to know: What they can do? Where to go? What to wear! After the screening of each short there will be an interactive and highly engaged discussion/brainstorming session WITH and BETWEEN New York's best and brightest activists, educators, class room teachers, community organizers and health care professionals working on women and girls/men and boys health, identity and body image

Award-winning filmmaker Jesse Epstein, named by Filmmaker Magazine to be one of the "25 new faces of independent film" in 2008 will be present.

GOAL
Jesse Epstein walks out with a more advanced understanding of how her serious and seriously funny & engaging shorts can be used effectively to promote a more healthy, evolved, aware and engaged NEW YORK and support the ongoing work of the best/brightest activists and educators etc... (no pressure).

The audience walks out knowing a little more about what linking filmmaking to organizing and "community engagement" is - and how story leads to action!

EVENT DETAILS:
SCREENING at 7pm
VENUE: 92Y Tribeca, 200 Hudson Street, NY, NY, 10013
Visit http://www.92y.org/shop/event_detail.asp?productid=T-MM5FA15 for Tickets.

Visit http://jessedocs.blogspot.com/ for more info on Jesse and her films.

Garbage Dreams reports back from SXSW

“I could not imagine a better place to premiere GARBAGE DREAMS other than SXSW” Mai exclaimed upon asking to report back from her festival experience earlier this month. “GARBAGE DREAMS is a coming of age story that touches on issues of recycling and globalization; Austinonians are working hard to create a sustainable hometown.
I not only wanted to screen GARBAGE DREAMS in front of an audience, but I also want to use the film as a tool to initiate a dialogue about sustainability and recycling.” This is exactly what Mai, along with main character -and downright star- Adham did in the week leading up to the festival. Here is a little report on the progress they made in Austin.

OUTREACH APPROACH
Weeks before the festival, Brenda Spicer and Casey Brown, GARBAGE DREAMS’ outreach team, worked diligently to amass a ground team of volunteers to disseminate flyers, posters, and other promotional materials. A series of emails phone calls to various organizations helped forge connections that were willing to advertise the film via their access to multiple electronic newspapers and listserves. The outreach team researched each specific school, church and environmental organization, and tailored each email to link the film’s message with that specific organization.

A significant part of the overwhelming success of the outreach work for the SXSW premier of GARBAGE DREAMS was the film itself and its globally relevant subject matter. Within the customary mechanics of the process that can be illustrated and repeated for any film; the key element that I firmly believe made the biggest impact here was to start from a deep commitment to the film and then reach out to these groups in a specific and personal way.

OUTREACH GOALS
The primary overall goal of GARBAGE DREAMS’ outreach campaign was to increase awareness of the film and its inspirational qualities relating to the recycling practices of the Zaballeen, the people of the Zaballeen and difference we can make, to our communities and planet.

ASSESSMENT OF GOALS.
Goals achieved by the outreach plan were evidenced literally by the massive number of people we were able to reach, and by box office turnout (selling out all three shows at SXSW). From spreading the film’s message and increasing awareness and activism in the week leading up to the festival with press, clip screenings and Q&As around Austin to selling paintings and raising funds for The Recycling School in Egypt – GARBAGE DREAMS managed to achieve a number of the outreach goals. GARBAGE DREAMS continues to build partnerships and explore opportunities – visit the “how to help” link on www.garbagedreams.com to participate.

Lionesses unleash their roar on the hill.

Today in Washington DC, LIONESS Directors Meg, Daria and the Lioness team made their case on Capitol Hill. The standing room only crowd consisted of Senators,
Congressmen, Vets, members of the press and advocates. A brilliant new cut was shown of the film, during which tears flowed followed by a thunder of applause. Meg, Daria and the Lionesses received the American flag from Nancy Pelosi's office for their exemplary service (combat and camera!) to their country. Best of all, two senators are sponsoring a Veteran's bill that will concretely address the unacknowledged contributions and challenges faced by women in combat. The film Lioness, and the women associated with it, made the case for this bill today in the most compelling way.

Posted by Wendy Ettinger, co-founder of Chicken & Egg Pictures who are Executive Producers of LIONESS. Visit www.lionessthefilm.com for more indepth coverage of this event.

Garbage Dreams wins Best Documentary at Bermuda International Film Festival!

Congratulations to Chicken & Egg grantee Mai Iskander who won Best Documentary at the Bermuda International Film Festival this week.

Juror Suzanne Chisholm had this to say about the film: "Much more than a simple environmental story, 'Garbage Dreams' is a compelling and compassionate portrait of modern-day Cairo and its very modern problems. It gives us a window to the vibrant human culture of this great city, and reminds us that the best solutions to our environmental problems are often found within the very human nature around us."

For a full report of the awards please visit The Royal Gazette