News

December 5, 2011 - [ RebuildTheDream.com ]

It’s not every day that a major Hollywood movie shines a light on hidden injustice.

The movie “The Help,” which brought the lives, work and struggles of domestic workers to the big screen in an unprecedented way, has been released on DVD. Now, the film’s producers, Participant Media, have released a new video series which features members of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. You can watch the videos here.

Our allies in the National Domestic Workers Alliance are also launching a new campaign, #BeTheHelp, to give everyone who has been moved by “The Help” a way to be part of improving the lives and working conditions of modern-day domestic workers.

More Honors for The Help

December 5, 2011 - [ Time Magazine ]

Time Magazine is running their Top Lists in the issue next week.

• The Help has been included in the Top Performances.

The Washington DC Area Film Critics Association announced their nominations (winners are announced Monday, Dec 5). Here are the nominations The Help received:

• Best Actress - Viola Davis
• Best Supporting Actress - Octavia Spencer
• Best Acting Ensemble
• Best Adapted Screenplay - Tate Taylor

December 1, 2011 - [ Huffington Post ]

At times, old-fashioned journalism resurrects itself to achieve its highest purpose, and the proof, ironically, can be found in the response of new social media. My Twitter feed was on fire Sunday night as a result of Scott Pelley's powerful 60 Minutes segment on child poverty, hunger and homelessness in central Florida. Harkening back to an Edward R. Morrow-like era when reporters served less as pundits and more as national conscience, Pelley returned to bear witness to the stoic suffering of children caught in an economic downturn not of their own making. The Sunday evening broadcast was a fitting bookend to the holiday weekend that began with the blessings of abundance that many of us enjoy over Thanksgiving.

December 1, 2011 - [ IndieWire ]

The National Board of Review has named Martin Scorsese's Hugo best film of the year.
 
"Hugo is such a personal film by Martin Scorsese," said Annie Schulhof, NBR President. "It is a tribute to the early years of cinema that uses today's cutting edge technology to bring the audience into a completely unique and magical world.  It is visually stunning and emotionally engaging."
 
Below is a full list of the awards given by the National Board of Review:

November 30, 2011 - [ Deadline.com ]

U.S. DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
The world premieres of 16 American documentary films.

Finding North / U.S.A. (Directors: Lori Silverbush, Kristi Jacobson) — A crisis of hunger looms in America and is not limited to the poverty stricken and uneducated. Can a return to policies of the 1970s save our future?

November 29, 2011 - [ IndieWire ]

Circumstance has been nominated for the John Cassavetes Award, given to the best feature made for under $500,000; award given to the writer, director, and producer.  The other nominees in the category are:
 
Bellflower
Hello Lonesome
Pariah
The Dynamiter
 
The awards ceremony will take place on February 25th.

November 18, 2011 - [ Variety ]

Melina Kanakaredes, Rafi Gavron and Nadine Velazquez have signed on to round out the cast of Ric Roman Waugh's action thriller Snitch, which is a co-production between Exclusive Media Group, Participant Media and Imagenation Abu Dhabi that will be released in the U.S. by Summit Entertainment.
 
Inspired by true events, Snitch stars Dwayne Johnson as a suburban father who's forced to risk his life and become an informant for the DEA in order to reduce his wrongly-accused son's 10-year jail sentence.

November 17, 2011 - [ ABA Center for Pro Bono Exchange ]

In this post, read the conclusion of the community profile highlighting the pro bono partnership between O’Melveny & Myers LLP and their client Participant Media:
 
Throughout the immigration pro bono project, the partnership between O’Melveny & Myers LLP (O’Melveny) and Participant Media (Participant) continued to play a large role in the volunteer effort. As part of each volunteer training the film The Visitor would be shown. This really brought home the importance of the work to be done and emphasized the need for the training. Participant also helped O’Melveny put together a 10 minute video of real detainees explaining what the impact being freed had upon them emotionally, upon their cases and upon their family. This highlighted the importance and impact of the work in a very powerful way.

November 17, 2011 - [ Daily Variety ]

Filmmaker Joel Coen, thesp Meryl Streep and musician Yo-Yo Ma are among the big names in Beijing for the first U.S.-China Forum on Arts and Culture. The four-day event starts tonight with a dinner for 240 guests at the U.S. embassy, overseen by organic food guru Alice Waters, proprietor of the Chez Panisse bistro in Berkeley, Calif.

Celebrity guests include artist Eric Fischl, scribes Amy Tan and Mark Danner, and ballet dancer and director Damian Woetzel.

Coen will reportedly meet "City of Life and Death" helmer Lu Chuan during his visit, while Streep will host a screening of the Margaret Thatcher biopic, "The Iron Lady," in which she stars.

Waters will also attend a screening of "Food Inc." with helmer Robert Kenner and scribes Corby Kummer and Michael Pollan.

November 10, 2011 - [ People's Choice Awards ]

The Help has been nominated for 4 People’s Choice Awards, including Favorite Movie, Favorite Drama Movie, Favorite Book Adaptation and Favorite Movie Actress (Emma Stone).

Vote now at the link below.

November 7, 2011 - [ Huffington Post ]

Like Rodney Dangerfield, groundwater gets no respect. So says Michael 'Aquadoc' Campana. Groundwater is being depleted at an unsustainable rate and since many people don't know where their water comes from they're not aware that this is a problem. Visualizing.org wants to change that with its latest data visualization contest, called Heads Up.
 
In case you've never heard of Visualizing.org, they are a community of creative people working to make sense of complex issues through data and design. They've held contests to visualize data from such complex global topics as water footprinting, growing food consumption and food needs, even the future of Facebook. Now, they've announced a contest to create a visualization of groundwater trends. The winning entry will be prominently displayed on 19,000 square feet of signboard as a 30-second motion graphic on the TS2 signs in New York City's Times Square for one month, beginning on March 22, 2012, World Water Day.

November 4, 2011 - [ Cinespect.com ]

Last Call at the Oasis (Jessica Yu, 2011) was screened at 2:30 P.M. on Tuesday, November 1 at S.C.A.D.’s Trustees Theater as part of the 2011 Savannah Film Festival.
 
Light pollution, it turns out, is the least of our problems. Just as I was recovering, having consumed the palate cleanser of a good Shakespearian war movie, from the toxic shock of learning that there was even such a thing as light pollution (whose steady increase, by the way, I forgot to mention, is making it increasingly difficult for astronomers to keep track of asteroids with the potential to snuff out all life on earth), I dutifully took my seat in S.C.A.D.’s Trustees Theater to see Jessica Yu’s new documentary Last Call at the Oasis and to thereby hopefully learn all that I needed to know about the global crisis of clean water accessibility.

October 28, 2011 - [ Broadcasting Ourselves: The Official YouTube Blog ]

Wonderful things happen when cool technology meets great entertainment. Cable television expanded our viewing possibilities from just a handful of channels to hundreds, and brought us some of the most defining media experiences of the last few decades-- think MTV, ESPN and CNN. Today, the web is bringing us entertainment from an even wider range of talented producers, and many of the defining channels of the next generation are being born, and watched, on YouTube.

Today we’re announcing that even more talented creators and original entertainment will soon join YouTube’s existing channel lineup, including channels created by well-known personalities and content producers from the TV, film, music, news, and sports fields, as well as some of the most innovative up-and-coming media companies in the world and some of YouTube’s own existing partners. These channels will have something for everyone, whether you’re a mom, a comedy fan, a sports nut, a music lover or a pop-culture maven.

October 28, 2011 - [ Mobile Marketing Association ]

The Waiting for "Superman" Social Action Campaign has been chosen as one of four finalists in the Social Impact category for the 2011 MMA Global Mobile Marketing Awards.

According to the MMA, the competition was stiff, their having received both a record number of entries and a record number of highly qualified campaigns. The winner will be announced on Nov 17 at the MMA Global Awards Gala in Los Angeles.

October 27, 2011 - [ Realscreen.com ]

Participant Media and its founder, Jeffrey Skoll, will be honored as part of the Paley Center for Media’s “Salute to Excellence” in December, for the company’s “unique use of media to accelerate social change.”

“Jeff Skoll founded Participant Media with the belief that a story well told has the power to inspire and compel social change,” said Paley Center for Media president and CEO Pat Mitchell. “It’s a privilege to honor the creativity and leadership that Jeff Skoll and Participant Media bring to the media landscape.”

October 21, 2011 - [ San Jose Mercury News ]

Jeff Skoll -- entrepreneur, philanthropist and Hollywood producer -- was honored Thursday night as this year's global humanitarian at Tech Awards Gala, one of Silicon Valley's pre-eminent social gatherings.

For a few hours, hundreds of Silicon Valley tech leaders focused on those who devote their lives to change-the-world business models and technologies to ensure doctors in Africa have solar-powered lights to conduct surgeries, enable impoverished villages in India to access safe drinking water and provide durable desks for African students.

October 18, 2011 - [ Parade ]

Q: What is Erin Brockovich doing these days?

A: She continues her crusade against water pollutants, focusing on their effect on communities across America. “People email me about illness and possible contamination in their towns, and I’ve plotted them on a map over the past year,” Brockovich, 51, says. “I have 2,000 sites down, and I’m talking to Google about taking it further with a real-time map.” Her latest efforts are showcased in Last Call at the Oasis, a documentary about the global water crisis; it premiered at the Toronto film festival last month.

October 18, 2011 - [ Amazon.com ]

T Bone Burnett Presents 'The Speaking Clock Revue - Live From The Beacon Theatre' MP3 is today’s "Amazon Daily Deal" – Get it today for only $3.99!   New concert album inspired by Waiting for "Superman" features Elton John, Elvis Costello, Leon Russell, John Mellencamp, Gregg Allman, Ralph Stanley, Jeff Bridges, Neko Case, Yim Yames, Punch Brothers, Karen Elson, and The Secret Sisters.

To purchase, click on the link below:

October 17, 2011 - [ AOL Music ]

The CD comes out on October 18, but during the week of release you can listen free to 'T Bone Burnett Presents The Speaking Clock Revue: Live from the Beacon Theatre,' featuring exclusive live performances from Elvis Costello, Neko Case, Elton John, Leon Russell, Yim Yames, and others.

October 14, 2011 - [ Outside Magazine, ]

The Power List
They control the lands you play on, the athletes you worship, the gear you buy, even the food you eat. Meet the 25* most influential people in the world outside. *Ranked in order of influence

15. Jeff Skoll
Founder of Participant Media
By: The Editors
Jeff Skoll    Photographer: Joe Ciardiello

Hollywood is squeamish when it comes to trying new things (for proof, see last summer’s Thor, The Green Hornet, and X-Men: First Class). So when a script comes along dealing with social issues or the environment, the man you want to get a meeting with is Jeff Skoll, 46, whose Participant Media funds the untouchable message movies the rest of Holly­wood laughs at.