I met the energentic, charismatic Julie Lofton at this years SILVERDOCS Festival and was very excited about this new funding opportunity for docs with animal focused content that Julie was spearheading. Take a look…

www.ACE-TVFILM.com
Developing and Supporting ANIMAL Content in Television & Film
A Division of The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS),
Presenter of The Genesis Awards

BI-MONTHLY NEWSLETTER – JULY 2006: Our partnership with SILVERDOCS: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival saw the first ACE feature length documentary production grant given to “Cougars on the Edge” for its gripping account of the race against time to protect a family of mountain lions trapped by a busy freeway. The award was presented June 17th to producer/director Janice Jensen for her engaging project, spotlighting the threat of urban encroachment on the cougars of Southern California, a problem afflicting wildlife in general across America.

The distinguished judging panel consisted of Animal Content in Entertainment’s, Julie Lofton as well as National Geographic Channel’s Sr. VP of Production and Development, Geoff Daniels, Discovery Channel’s Director of Development, Alberto Enriquez, PBS’ head of primetime programming, Cara Liebenson, Animal Planet’s Programming executive Patrick Keegan. Mathew Tomber, President of Intermat, Inc. moderated the pitch panel.

Also, announced at the AFI’s Conservatory Commencement on June 7, 2006, the winner of the first Animal Content in Entertainment short narrative film grant for bringing an engaging and imaginative perspective to one of 120 ACE approved animal issue topics, is Diana Romero for “Nina Quebrada” (Broken Girl), the story of a 16-year-old Mexican girl forced into prostitution against the back drop of the cruel multi million dollar cockfighting industry.

· WATCH FOR

In the coming year we will be working on developing a “new media” initiative with podcasting and an online community to establish an alternate form of distribution for short content and to find more and innovative ways for filmmakers to show off their work. Also coming up we plan to extend our student grant to include more film schools and universities, and offer an independent narrative feature grant as well.

· ACTIVITIES

Since launching in January we have been very active on the film festival circuit, attending, sponsoring, participating in/on several panel discussions as well as making our brochures, ourselves and even our yo/yo swag available. To date we have attended The Sundance International Film Festival, The Real Screen Summit, The International Wildlife Film Festival, SILVERDOCS, and The LA Film Festival. It has been quite a busy year thus far.

· OPPORTUNITIES & RESOURCES

If you are a writer, producer or director already interested in raising awareness of animal issues, or are simply on the look-out for new ideas and topics on animals, we would like to hear from you. Whether you are considering an animal topic as the main theme of your work, or as a B or C storyline, we are here to help in a variety of ways: with research support, production and distribution partners and offering unique promotional opportunities to increase your audience via The HSUS, the nation’s largest animal-protection agency with 9.5 million constituents. Please contact me at: jlofton@ace-tvfilm.com

Julie Lofton
PRODUCER/EXECUTIVE FILM/TV DEVELOPMENT
(ACE) Animal Content in Entertainment
Supporting & Developing Content in TV and Film
A Division of the Humane Society of the United States
Presenter of the Genesis Awards

www.ace-tvfilm.com
jlofton@ace-tvfilm.com

5551 Balboa Blvd.
Encino, CA 91316
(818) 382-6565
fax: (818) 501-2226

It’s our pleasure to announce that two DER films, Ordinary Lives By Shetal Agarwal
B.A.T.A.M. by Dalzell, Eriksson, Lindquist have been selected for the Sixth Festival of Visual Culture, Viscult 2006 in Finland.

The festival runs from the 27th of September to the 1st of October.

We hope that our filmmakers will be there in Joensuu to talk about their films in person.

Thursday, July 27 at 7 p.m. The Right to be Wrong (The quest for peace in modern Israel through the eyes of Israelis and Palestinians) plays with Ruth Gumnit’s Dont Fence Me In at the Pioneer Theater.

Ticket Info:
Pioneer Theater
155 E. 3rd Street (at Avenue A)
New York, NY 10009

Festival Info:
Her Voice Her View
955 Metropolitan Ave, #4R
Brooklyn, NY 11211

more details at www.altarmagazine.com

“Remembering John Marshall” has been accepted as an official selection in competition for the 15th Woods Hole Film Festival and will be among 80 films representing the best of independent filmmaking.

This year the festival will be held from Saturday, July 29th through Saturday, August 5th, I hope you’ll plan to attend some of the festival, there’s lots to do in addition to watching films, including workshops, screenplay readings, panel discussions, and of course, parties!

Thank you again for your contributions without which we would not be screening at the Woods Hole Film Festival and other festivals in the future.

See www.woodsholefilmfestival.org for more information.

We have been recommending that filmmakers join AIVF, a great resource for indepenents, for many years. We were saddened by this news.

June 13, 2006

Dear AIVF Members –

RE: AIVF to Close Operations with Efforts Underway to Continue the Independent

In February AIVF launched an emergency fundraising appeal with an announcement to members that the organization faced an uncertain future. We are sorry to report that we have not reached the fundraising targets necessary for a turnaround and continuation of operations. However, long-term supporters in the independent community are organizing later this month to assess whether a core group of champions can take over hands-on management of the Independent while also reinventing and relaunching AIVF as a membership organization. We are also actively exploring other options for continuing publication of the Independent through
other like-minded organizations.

Read on for important information about AIVF member benefits and updates on future prospects:

Health insurance continues through 12-31-2006: For those currently covered by health insurance based on your AIVF membership, your coverage will continue through the end of this year (Dec. 31, 2006) no matter what your renewal date. For questions about your existing coverage, please contact:

TEIGIT (David Rubin) 1-800-886-7504
teigit@teigit.com
www.teigit.com

Also, we are in conversation with other independent media organizations to see if they will be able to extend health insurance coverage for AIVF members beyond 2006. We will report back to you in July with an update.

Operations will close 6-28-2006: AIVF will close operations and vacate its office space by June 28. We are in conversation with like-minded organizations that may be able to provide alternatives for AIVF members, such as specific benefits or a complimentary membership. We will report back to you in July with an update.

Future Prospects: Whether or not AIVF is ultimately able to continue as an organization, we are hopeful that the Independent will continue as an information resource and voice for the independent community. While supporters are regrouping to assess whether the magazine can be taken on under AIVF auspices, AIVF’s transitional board has also been exploring the option of having a like-minded successor organization take over publication of the Independent. With the assistance of a consultant with expertise in small press magazine publishing, we have created financial models and initiated conversations with a handful of interested independent media groups. Chief among our concerns with any potential successor organization is a commitment to the Independent’s core values: advocacy to promote and protect diverse independent voices, information exchange and community support for independents, and excellence in the art and craft of independent media making.

Special legacy issue of the Independent: Look for a special issue of the Independent in July highlighting some of the important stories, voices and moments in independent filmmaking since AIVF was founded in 1973. While no single issue of the Independent can totally represent the many layers of our rich history over more than 30 years, this issue offers a glimpse of what has been accomplished due to the creativity and hard work of so many.

– AIVF Board of Directors

This crossed my inbox today and I thought I’d pass on what sounds like a wonderful way to spend a summer and learn something about documentary film at the same time.

PRESS RELEASE
—————————————-
VII. Film Summer School
“The Biographical and Autobiographical Documentary Film”
—————————————-
July 30. - August 5. 2006, Locarno (Switzerland)
www.fss.unisi.ch

Dear Sirs,

The University of Lugano, Switzerland, in association with the Locarno
International Film Festival, organise from July 30. to August 5., the
seventh Summer School on the analysis of non-fiction films.

In a period marked by ever-increasing narcissism and a recurring need to
anchor one’s identity to visual heritage, the relationship between cinema,
biography and autobiography takes on extra significance. It is a complex
relationship, existing as it does in a space of hybrid production, closer to
the private and experimental sphere than to that of industry. Portraits,
self portraits, filmed diaries, travel reportage, essay films, video
letters, family films and video confessions have, since the sixties, obliged
film makers and theoreticians to reflect on numerous aspects: the role of
the author, the dialectic between subjectivity and objectivity and between
private and public, the relationship between memory and the imagined and
between authenticity and cinema mediation, etc. The biographical and
autobiographical domain leads to the identification of a series of disparate
materials which can be classified under the ambiguous title of “personal
cinema”. Driven by very subjective reasons, motivated by a curiosity about
the self and the other which calls into play the very roots of identity,
tending towards exploration which is often obsessive, personal cinema
represents, on one hand, a strong direct link to reality, and, on the other,
a genre which crosses the border of literary tradition to become the
privileged means of expression of an ego by now definitively bound to image.

With the contribution of acclaimed filmmakers (Alina Marazzi, Jacqueline
Veuve), renowned academics (Raymond Bellour, Christa Blümlinger, Francesco
Casetti, Giovanni Cesareo, Vinzenz Hediger, Giuseppe Richeri) and
professionals (Heino Deckert, Federico Jolli, Alessandro Signetto, Tiziana
Soudani), the 2006 Summer School aims to examine the salient points of a
very topical debate in which the relationship between cinema, biography and
autobiography reveals a working outline that is wide ranging and
multifaceted, with its boundaries in a constant state of flux.

The Summer School - whose scientific committee is composed of Francesco
Casetti (University of Lugano and Catholic University of Milan), Maria
Cristina Lasagni (University of Lugano), Giuseppe Richeri (University of
Lugano) and Margrit Tröhler (University of Zurich) -is open to 30 university
students from Switzerland and abroad, offering them the opportunity to
explore the techniques of analysis and the processes of creation and
production of the documentary film through the following teaching
activities:

***Cinema, Documentary and (auto)biography***
A series of four seminars - coordinated by Professor Fancesco Casetti - will
look at the documentary film both from the historical and from the stylistic
point of view; in particular, questioning the strategies used to explore
reality, and the difficulties to interpret the idea of biography and
autobiography. Guest teachers include professors Christa Blümlinger
(University of Paris III, France) and Vinzenz Hediger (University of Bochum,
Germany).

***Workshops on the documentary film***
The four modules - coordinated by Professor Giuseppe Richeri - will consist
of two workshops conducted by two renowned documentary filmmakers: Alina
Marazzi (Italy) and Jacqueline Veuve (Switzerland). Using analytical
methods, the authors will present their own creative-production processes
and the typical features of their relevant market. Laboratory work includes
the viewing and the discussion of one or more films, each author’s
presentation of his conception and production cycle in its main stages, to
conclude with a group discussion with the film director.

***Meeting the professionals of the documentary film industry*** This is a
study day where the students meet the professionals of the film industry,
especially those concerned with the documentary genre, and hear about
professional characteristics, the forms their activities may take and
related problems. This series of meetings has been designed to familiarise
students with a rather complex professional world, but also to capture the
documentary film world in all its facets (aesthetics, production, and
distribution). Guest lecturers include: Heino Deckert (sales agent, Deckert
Distribution, Germany), Federico Jolli (producer, TSI, Switzerland),
Alessandro Signetto (financing policies expert, director Antenna Media
Torino, Italy), and Tiziana Soudani (producer, Amka Films, Switzerland).

***Round Table “The biographical and autobiographical documentary. In a
feminine key”*** The Summer School ends with an open forum, to which are
invited a number of personalities attending the Festival: Raymond Bellour
(writer and film critic), Alina Marazzi (director) and Jacqueline Veuve
(director). The event will be moderated by Professor Giovanni Cesareo. This
forum is open not only to the Summer School students, but also to the
Festival goers.

————————————————–
Deadline for application: Saturday, 1st July, 2006
————————————————–

The Film Summer School full programme may be found at the website
www.fss.unisi.ch
Information request: info@fss.unisi.ch

We thank you for the attention you will kindly give to this event and
remain, with best regards,

Yours very truly,

Jean-Pierre Candeloro
Film Summer School Coordinator

—————————————-
Jean-Pierre Candeloro
Università della Svizzera italiana, Facoltà di scienze della comunicazione,
Istituto Media e Giornalismo (IMeG)
Via G. Buffi 13, CH-6900 Lugano
+41 (0)58 666 48 14 (office), +41 (0)58 666 46 47 (fax),
+candeloj@usilu.net
—————————————-
www.fss.unisi.ch

Youth, Camera, Action!

Interested in film and video?
Passionate about the environment?
Are you between the ages of 14 and 18?

Learn how to shoot & edit your own video and see your film screen at the
7th annual Planet in Focus Film Festival this fall!

Planet in Focus: International Environmental Film & Video Festival announces its 6th annual Two-Week Hands-on Video Production Youth Summer Workshop

Planet in Focus is one of North America’s leading Environmental Film Festivals. We’re looking for 25 teens interested in learning the basics of video production. In an exciting ‘camp’ style environment, participants will work in teams to learn how to shoot and edit their own five-minute environmentally themed video. All projects are shot on MiniDV cameras, edited digitally and will be screened at the 7th annual Planet in Focus festival in front of a live audience!

When: August 14th-25th, 2006 (9am-5pm each day Monday-Friday)
Where: Week 1: Innis College (2 Sussex Avenue, near the St. George subway station),
Week 2: Charles Street Video (65 Bellwoods Avenue, near Queen/Niagara)
Who: Youth between 14 and 18 years old. We are particularly looking for youth from diverse backgrounds that would not otherwise have access to video equipment and training opportunities.
Fee: $100 for the entire two weeks!! (Payable on the first day of camp).
Note: Scholarships available if needed (please indicate requests on your application)

How do I apply?
It’s easy!
In a brief letter, please tell us a bit about yourself. Don’t forget to mention why you want to participate in the workshop and what “Environment” means to you.
Then fill out the application form [DOC | PDF] with all your contact information.
Send the application in to us! Application Deadline July 14th, 2006!!
Registration is on a first-come, first-serve basis, so don’t wait, apply ASAP!

Notification: All applicants will hear back from us within two weeks of applying.

Send your application form and letter to:
Youth Camera Action, c/o Planet in Focus
455 Spadina Avenue, Suite 304
Toronto, ON M5S 2G8
E-mail: myan@planetinfocus.org
Phone: 416-531-1769

For more information about Planet in Focus check out our website:
www.planetinfocus.org

PLANET IN FOCUS: International Environmental Film & Video Festival

COMPOSING FOR FILM

John Kusiak offers tips on collaborating with a composer

Filmmakers Workshop offers Boston area independent media artists a non-competitive, supportive community to strengthen their work. The screenings and workshops (held on the third Wednesday of each month) enhance the quality of projects produced from the pitch to the completed work by offering filmmakers informal professional development opportunities, constructive feedback, and a chance to network with their peers.

Filmmakers Workshop is a program of the Center for Independent Documentary in association with the Alliance for Independent Motion Media and the Massachusetts Production Coalition.

John Kusiak, composer for Errol Morris and other filmmakers, presents an evening on how to collaborate with a composer to create great music for your film. John will address why you might choose to work with a composer-and the best ways to do so.

DATE: Wednesday, June 21, 2006
TIME: 6:30 pm - 9:30 pm
LOCATION: Bernard Toale Gallery, 450 Harrison Avenue in Boston’s South End
please rsvp

Save the date for our July workshop (July 19) which will be a rough cut screening. If you have a rough cut that you are interested in showing, please visit our website for more information on how to submit your film for consideration.

Directions to Bernard Toale Gallery
FROM THE WEST Take the Mass Pike to 93 South. Get off at Exit 24A. Turn left at stoplight. Go 2 short blocks and turn left at entrance to Mass Pike/Albany St. Stay left and follow Albany St. Ramp. Go three short blocks to E. Berkeley St. Take a right on E. Berkeley then your first left onto Harrison Ave. It’s only two short blocks to Thayer St. We are on the left at the corner of Harrison and Thayer.– FROM THE NORTH Off of 93 South, take the Mass Pike - Albany St. exit. This exit splits almost immediately and you should follow the Albany St. exit. From there, proceed to E. Berkeley and follow above instructions.– FROM THE SOUTH Off of 93 North , take Exit 18/Mass Ave. At light turn right onto Mass Ave. Go 2 blocks and turn right on to Harrison Ave. And travel 8 blocks to Harrison and Thayer. Parking is available in the lot next to the gallery at 475 Harrison Ave.

The AIMM proposal writing workshop with Julie Mackaman
Due to unforseen circumstances, we have had to reschedule the proposal writing workshop with Julie Mackaman which had been planned for June. Watch your email for information about the rescheduled date (in the fall). Don’t forget to visit the AIMM website for updates on events.

Alliance for Independent Motion Media

Fellow WIFV/NE member Linda Pattillo’s documentary THE BREAST CANCER DIARIES will have its World Premiere at the SILVERDOCS Festival in Silver Spring, Maryland. I will be attending SILVER DOCS and plan on getting tickets to see this film. It was recently picked up by Seventh Art Releasing, a Los Angeles- based distributor. Visit www.silverdocs.com for details on the festival.

“When I was first diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2004, I was making calls to people to get some information on what exactly was happening to me. As I did so, my sister-in-law was watching me and as I got off the phone with a doctor, she said, ‘You know, Ann, you’re handling this like a reporter. Getting the info, writing down the facts….this would be an amazing documentary.’ I wasn’t sure what to say, except that I was reacting in the only way I knew how, given the stressful situation. Hearing all this awful information about yourself is mind-boggling; snapping into “reporter mode” was the way I dealt with it without emotionally imploding at the same time. I said yes–let’s do it: so Linda has been there with me, camera rolling, since day three of my diagnosis. She’s caught the highs, lows and everything in between of a young mother slammed with such rotten news in the quote prime of her life…. Our hope is to give hope to the people who surround those diagnosed with breast cancer: to offer them insights on how to help, how to be a friend, and what it’s ‘like’ to have cancer at a young age, with so much to live for.” - Ann Murray Paige.
www.thebreastcancerdiaries .com

(I am on their advisory board)
is co-presenting the film Source at the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival.

A powerful film that reveals the price paid by ordinary people for Azerbaijan’s oil exports.

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
June 9-22 at Walter Reade Theater, 165 W. 65th Street, Plaza Level
Full schedule www.hrw.org/iff Ticket info; Box office (212) 875-5600 or www.filmlinc.com

Presents:

SOURCE (Zdroj) (New York Premiere)
Martin Mareček & Martin Skalský, Czech Republic, 2005, 75m, video, doc
Azerbaijan is ranked one of the world’s most corrupt countries, where a reigning ruling family is in its second generation of power. Baku in Azerbaijan, is also the site of the world’s first oil well, and is once again becoming a focus for foreign investors as the origin of a major oil, gas, and pipeline project developed by an international consortium led by BP. In Source, a small, mobile and highly inventive Czech film crew travels around the country to investigate and record the impact of this most recent energy boom. They film the surrealist Soviet-era oil fields around Baku, with locals oblivious to the environmental dangers, striking images of cows grazing on polluted land and children playing in toxic sludge. With startling access and more then a little black humour, the filmmakers interview a fascinating cross section of people involved with and affected by the oil boom - allegedly corrupt politicians, oil company employees, businessmen, angry women whose husbands and sons work for very little money in shockingly polluted conditions in this industry. Source also cleverly examines the links from commuter highways in the West back to energy development in Azerbaijan. With the majority of the population living under the poverty line, the country’s post-Soviet government is promising oil will bring widespread economic benefits to all, but could this “liquid gold” be more of a curse than a blessing for this troubled country?
Presented in association with the Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival

Sun June 11: 6:30; Wed June 14: 9; Thurs June 15: 1
www.hrw.org/iff/2006/ny/films.html#22

Submitted by Cynthia Close, Executive Director, DER

Make plans to attend the 6th Annual World Congress of History Producers, November 16 to 19, in London, England.

The World Congress of History Producers is the premiere opportunity for producers of history to meet face-to-face with program decision makers from around the world, including representatives of the major broadcasters, in a pressure-free milieu. Last year, more than two thirds of participants surveyed found production partners. 60% advanced productions in development. And virtually everyone came away a little richer for the experience: the thought-provoking keynote address; the stimulating sessions; the happy confluence of like-minded professionals.

History 2006’s sessions will once again ‘dig deep to the root of the topic’ delivering excellence in education and providing opportunities for invigorating back-and-forth. Topics on the table include: The Great Debate: Academics vs. Producers; and History Uncovered: the State of History Programming and the Search for Hidden Profits. Case Studies include: In Conversation with Jeremy Isaacs and Munich: Hollywood vs. History. Stay tuned for specifics as well as an announcement about this year’s keynote speaker.

Join us on November 16 to 19, in London England for the 6th Annual World Congress of History Producers. Where Great Minds Make History. Visit our website for complete registration details: www.history2006.com . Register before October 5 and save with the Early Bird rate.

DER is proud to have served as a fiscal sponsor for Juan Carlos Peinado’s new release WATERBUSTER

(Documentary)

A Brave Boat production. Produced by Juan Carlos Peinado, Daphne D. Ross. Directed by Juan Carlos Peinado, written, edited by Peinado, Daphne D. Ross;

With: Fielder, Darrell Fielder, Fred Baker, Reba White Shirt, Paul Van Develder, Tom Grenz.
(English, Hidatsa dialogue)

By RONNIE SCHEIB

A lyrical, haunting account of loss of community and cultural identity, Juan Carlos Peinado’s “Waterbuster” evocatively melds personal and tribal history. Pic’s catalog of broken treaties and blatant exploitation registers as unfortunately all too familiar. But Peinado’s dense tapestry of photographs, drawings, government films, cartoons and homemovies vividly reimagines the fabled towns and rich bottomland from which the North Dakota Indians were evicted by the damming of the Missouri River. Intriguing docu could build enough momentum on the fest circuit to insure ancillary interest.
Returning to his ancestral homeland to place a headstone on his grandmother’s grave, the filmmaker conjures a strong sense of identification with the bend in the river that once housed seven towns now under the waters of Lake Sakajawea, an ironic name that belies the water’s non-native origin. Though the story of tribes’ dispossession from their ancestral lands plays as heartbreaking in its injustice, the manner of its telling and the self-possession of its tellers plant an impression of strength and persistence.

Unlike most tribes resettled or left on land judged worthless, the members of the Mandan-Hidatsa-Arikara Nation of the Fort Berthold Reservation remained self-sufficient, conserving their language and customs well into the 1950s, running livestock, cultivating fertile fields and living in towns that outwardly looked very much the same as those of their Anglo counterparts.

Three consecutive catastrophic floods along the Missouri River in the 1940s led the Army Corps of Engineers to propose a series of dams. Historians and tribal chiefs explain that the Garrison Dam could have been built elsewhere without illegally abrogating government treaties. As the tale of congressional arrogance and shady dealings unfolds, Peinado intercuts a contemporaneous 16mm public service film that spouts the official line: that “Mr. Gregg,” the average farmer, is scrupulously guaranteed fair compensation for his land.

The relocation of 4,000 people and the loss of some 156,000 acres proved devastating, sounding the death knell of tribal life as members were scattered to the four winds. Yet when the filmmaker and his relatives are drawn back to the land and to the sense of belonging it imparts, it’s clear that their spiritual belief in who they are remains strong. It’s also noted that the lake is beginning to silt up, ruining the tourist trade.

Peinado uses a small screen-within-a-screen to counterpoint the past — via homemovies, government propaganda reels or family photographs, with the large-screen present.

Serene DV lensing is impressive, as is the pic’s Hypnotic Amerind score. Pic is titled after the clan of the director’s mother.

camera (color, DV), Peinado; music, Steve Cornell; music supervisor, Jeanne Da Silva; sound, Peinado. Reviewed on DVD, New York, May 5, 2006. (In Tribeca Film Festival — Discovery.) Running time: 78 MIN.

I have recently gotten involved in a youth media program for urban kids here in Cambridge Massachusetts. I’m becoming more aware of all the opportunities there are for kids to have “their voices heard” in more than one arena.

The following plea was in my “in box” today, so I thought we could do our part to help out Jamie Walker. (whoever he is) - Cynthia

*************************************************************************************
Hello all,

You are receiving this message because you know me (Jamie Walker), Carrie Pavlik, Doug Placais, Sarah Rogers, or Mickey Newman. Perhaps you’re a friend, a friend of a friend, a former classmate, a relative, a coworker, or some confused stranger who mistakenly got on the mailing list. It matters not you who are, but what we can achieve in unison.

Listen up! The five us, all students or former students at the University of Pittsburgh, joined forces and created a film to enter into a national short film competition. The competition, FilmYourIssue, encouraged 18-26 year olds nationwide to create 30-60 second films on social issues that are important to them. Five finalists will be selected and presented at the United Nations in New York on June 19. The top winner will receive a paid internship at Walt Disney in Los Angeles and the four other finalists will receive laptops and mobile phones. This is not a small-time competition by any means.

From a pool of hundreds of films, only 35 semifinalists have been selected and posted online for public voting. The five finalists will be chosen by a 50% public opinion vote and a 50% judges panel vote. The elite judges panel includes George Clooney and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Our film, “One Less Car, One More Bike,” is one of the semifinalists.

Let me repeat: the film created by Jamie Walker, Carrie Pavlik, Doug Placais, Sarah Rogers, and Mickey Newman is a semifinalist in a national short film competition.

Please do the five of us a tremendous favor and vote for our film here: www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12721177. It would be amazing if five young adults from Southwestern PA were selected to represent a nation of impassioned youths before the United Nations.

Also, please forward this message to all of your friends, classmates, relatives, and coworkers. So much is riding on an anonymous public vote, so this will probably boil down to “which filmmaker has the most friends or family” (sort of like the voting on American Idol). Please vote before June 7.

Once again, thank you very much for reading this message. Even if you do not feel like voting for our film (all you confused strangers out there), please watch all of the films on display. There are so many issues out there to be concerned about, and all of us filmmakers would like you to hear our voices.

If you’d like to read more about me and the creation of this film, please go to spaces.msn.com/jamieawalker Thank you so much, Jamie Walker

PS I apologize to you Mac users out there (I am one too by the way).
The MSNBC page where the voting takes place only works on Internet
Explorer with Windows Media Player on a Windows PC. Please find a PC
that you can use to vote.