MediaRights Releases Film Festival DVD and Teacher's Guide Tailored to High School Curriculum Standards

MediaRights, a nonprofit organization dedicated to building collaborations between filmmakers and social activists, has announced the release of its Fourth Annual Media That Matters Film Festival DVD, which can be accompanied by a free Teacher's Guide that is aligned with national standards.

The festival's mission is to celebrate moving, engaging, and sometimes humorous films that encourage social action and motivate change. The films range from animation to experimental, documentary to satire, and offer a glimpse into the grassroots battles being fought by activists on a variety of issues.

Recognizing that the use of multimedia tools in the classroom can enhance student learning, MediaRights offers a free Teacher's Guide including discussion questions and activities promoting media literacy and civic engagement for high-school students. The comprehensive guide meets national and state (NY, TX, CA, FL) standards for civics, language, arts, media literacy, sociology, visual arts and more. The DVD website features free downloads about the films and their issues as well as tips on hosting a Festival screening to encourage community involvement.

"This DVD allows us to bring MediaRights' mission of fostering community involvement through media outreach to a wider audience of not only students and nonprofit groups, but also of concerned individuals, extending the Media That Matters' life beyond the initial theatrical and Internet screenings," said Nicole Betancourt, Executive Director of MediaRights.

Ryan Goble, Member of The National Council of Teachers of English Media Literacy Board, said after having purchased the DVD, "I have already used them in class. They are wonderful teaching tools, especially for my debate class."

The sixteen short films included on the DVD tackle topics such as the environment (The Meatrix; Seeds of Hope), criminal justice (Books Not Bars), September 11th and civil liberties (Day of Remembrance; Bush for Peace), AIDS awareness (I Promise Africa; iThemba), domestic abuse (Novela, Novela), media reform (POPaganda: The Art & Subversion of Ron English, Spring in Awe), immigration (The Sixth Section), the working poor (Struggling to Survive), and childhood obesity and bullying (Laugh at the Fat Kid). A number of films were produced by teenagersTeen filmmakers are also highlighted (Children of Birmingham; Lean on Me; Dedicated to My Family; Struggling to Survive).

(Please see attached for a complete list of films and descriptions.)

Rebecca Yenawine, producer of The Children of Birmingham, said of the Festival, "I think it's great to be side by side with so many great pieces and so many pieces that have so much to say. It's a very powerful statement about what media can do."

The sixteen included shorts were selected from over three hundred Festival entries. The submissions were reviewed by a jury of media professionals, activists, and filmmakers, including Barbara Abrash, Associate Director of the Center for Media, Culture and History at New York University, Lillian Jimenez, Executive Director of the Latino Educational Media Center and Michelle Materre, media professor at the New School University.

The Fourth Annual Media That Matters Film Festival is available for purchase on DVD for $29.99 through Amazon.com. The DVD is also available for rental through Netflix (http://www.netflix.com/). The total running time is 1 hour 27 minutes. Proceeds from sales of the DVD benefit MediaRights' nonprofit outreach and educational programs. To buy the DVD and download the free Teacher's Guide as a PDF, go to http://www.mediathatmattersfest.org/dvd.

The principal partner of the Fourth Annual Media That Matters Film Festival is The Human Rights Watch International Film Festival. Additional partners include 911 Media Arts Center, Center for Social Media, International Television Service (ITVS), Bay Area Video Coalition, and Third World Newsreel. Festival sponsors include the National Film Network, Netflix, Sundance Channel, HBO, Filmmaker Magazine, Alexander Summer Family Foundation, The Waitt Family Foundation, The Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers, Heifer International, Paola Freccero, and Frank Marshall. Additional support is provided by The Ford Foundation, Otto Haas Charitable Trust, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, Open Society Institute, The Surdna Foundation, and the Time Warner Foundation. The DVD was produced with support from Ambient Digital Media and Newstyle Media.

Please contact Miyuki Jokiranta at (646) 230-6288 or press@mediarights.org to request a screening copy. Artwork is available for download at http://www.mediarights.org/press.

About MediaRights

The Media That Matters Film Festival is presented by MediaRights: an organization that builds the capacity of community organizations and filmmakers to reach, teach, activate, and educate their constituencies. MediaRights promotes the exhibition of documentaries in non-traditional venues and puts filmmakers in touch with new audiences. Equipped with the nation's most comprehensive database of politically and socially-engaged films and videos, MediaRights provides educators and activists with the tools they need to create video curricula, curate audio/visual collections and use film more effectively in the classroom and in lobbying campaigns. More than 30,000 users visit MediaRights each month making the site one of the most vibrant online centers for community/filmmaker collaborations. MediaRights and the Media That Matters Film Festival are projects of Arts Engine, Inc., a nonprofit organization. For more information about MediaRights, visit http:///www.mediarights.org.

  Fourth Annual Media That Matters Film Festival DVD
  Included Films:

   I Promise Africa, 2:40 min., Public Service Announcement
   Jerry Henry, Director/Producer
   When Jerry Henry set off to Kenya to make a documentary about orphans he
   didn't realize that he would be preserving on tape the voices of a
   generation that would soon be silenced.
   Winner of the Jury Award Sponsored by National Film Network

   iThemba, 5:19 min., Documentary Short
   Keefe Murren, Director/Producer, Nelson Walker III, Director/Producer,
   Lynn True, Director
   Through the mesmerizing melding of their voices, the Sinikithemba Choir
   turns stage into soapbox, singing and speaking for the 5 million HIV+
   South Africans in desperate need of medication and support.
   Winner of the Health Advocacy Award Sponsored by Sundance Channel

   Seeds of Hope: South Africa, 6:12 min., International Documentary
   Sarah Hesterman, Director/Producer, Produced by Gotham Pictures, Funded
   by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation
   Solutions to poverty and malnutrition require resourcefulness and
   dedication. A group of women in a South African township learn how to
   sustain themselves and their children.
   Winner of the Environment Award

   The Meatrix, 3:47 min., Flash Animation
   Louis Fox, Director, Produced by Free Range Graphics in conjunction with
   the Global Resource Action Center for the Environment
   Will Leo the pig take the blue pill and remain in a fantasyland where
   quaint family farms produce food for our tables or will he take the red
   pill and get a cruel welcome to the real world?
   Winner of the Film for Thought Award Sponsored by Heifer International

   Laugh at the Fat Kid, 7:57 min., Narrative Short
   Kristina Schoentag, Director/Producer
   Whimsical and visually creative, "Laugh at the Fat Kid" intimately
   portrays a young boy caught in a cycle of ridicule and overeating,
   forcing the viewer to ask "What's wrong with this picture?"
   Winner of the Peter Yarrow Peace in Our Classrooms Award Sponsored by
   Frank Marshall

   Lean on Me, 1:46 min., Youth Digital Story
   Harold Clinton, Director, The Center for Reflective Community Practice at
   MIT and Creative Narrations, Producers
   When the mayor's office says "no," a group of kids find their own way to
   make their dream for a safe place to play basketball a reality.
   Winner of the SEE CHANGE, MAKE CHANGE Youth Digital Story Award Sponsored
   by the Waitt Family Foundation

   Books Not Bars, 3:44 min., Campaign Portrait
   Mark Landsman, Director/Producer for WITNESS
   A growing number of youth are questioning the way their state governments
   spend money. The teens of the Books Not Bars movement demand that
   education, not incarceration, be the priority, now and in the future.
   Winner of the Criminal Justice Award Sponsored by Open Society Institute

   The Children of Birmingham, 6:17 min., Animation
   Rebecca Yenawine, Director, Kids on the Hill, Producer
   Through stirring narration and beautiful illustrations, Baltimore middle-
   school students tell the story of their 1960s counterparts who fought for
   their civil rights.
   Winner of the SEE CHANGE, MAKE CHANGE Youth Video Award Sponsored by Open
   Society Institute and Time Warner Foundation

   Day of Remembrance, 8:00 min., Political Documentary
   Cynthia Fujikawa, Director/Producer
   The legislators behind the Patriot Act claim to have made America safer,
   but in the process they have destroyed the lives of thousands of innocent
   Arab and Muslim Americans. Day of Remembrance calls attention to this
   tragic phenomenon and reminds us that American history has a tendency to
   repeat itself.
   Winner of the Racial Justice Award

   Dedicated to My Family, 3.51 min., Personal Documentary
   Nicole Sobottke, Director, Reel Grrls at 911 Media Arts Center, Producer
   Nicole dreams about a perfect family. Living in a teen shelter, she has
   learned that family is where the heart is.
   Winner of the Family and Society Award

   Struggling to Survive, 7:37 min., Youth Documentary
   Dana Hall, Ashley Potter and Mary Profitt, Directors, Appalshop's
   Appalachian Media Institute, Producer
   Having a job doesn't mean you make enough to get by. Teenagers in eastern
   Kentucky turn their cameras on the living wage crisis in their community.
   Winner of the Youth Documentary Award Sponsored by Time Warner Foundation

   The Sixth Section, 8:10 min., Social Documentary
   Alex Rivera, Director/Producer, Produced in association with
   P.O.V./American Documentary
   Sometimes the "American Dream" is realized on foreign soil. During the
   cold winters of upstate New York, a group of immigrants work together to
   give a baseball field, an ambulance and whatever else they can manage to
   their hometown of Boqueron, Mexico.
   Winner of the American Dream Award Sponsored by Netflix

   Novela, Novela, 7:20 min., International Documentary
   Elizabeth Miller, Director/Producer
   Every afternoon, millions of Nicaraguans gather around their TV sets to
   watch their favorite imported novela (soap opera). What would happen if a
   group of activists produced a homegrown novela about real issues like
   safe sex and domestic abuse?
   Winner of the Women's Rights Award


   Bush for Peace, 1:56 min., Satirical Short
   Sarah Christman, Director/Producer, Jen Simmons, Director/Producer
   It's Dubbya as you've never heard him before in a re-mix of U.S. foreign
   policy created from the Commander-in-Chief's "Moment of Truth" speech.
   Bush for Peace is at once a fantasy, a satire, and an earnest plea to
   stop the violence.
   Winner of the Politics and Government Award

   Spring in Awe, 4 min., Experimental Short
   Martina Radwan, Director/Producer, Moira Demos, Producer
   The overpowering displays of Times Square put a spell on the world in a
   disturbing lullaby of global capitalism.
   Winner of the Media Awareness Award Sponsored by the Association of
   Independent Video and Filmmakers

   POPaganda: The Art & Subversion of Ron English, 8:24 min., Portrait
   Pedro Carvajal, Director/Producer
   A modern-day Robin Hood of Madison Avenue, artist and satirist Ron
   English reclaims corporate billboards with uncanny canvases that force
   the man on the street to look twice ... or maybe three times.
   Winner of the Media Literacy Award Sponsored by Paola Freccero

SOURCE: MediaRights

CONTACT: Miyuki Jokiranta
MediaRights
+1-646-230-6288
press@mediarights.org

Web site: http:///www.mediarights.org
http://www.mediarights.org/press
http://www.mediathatmattersfest.org/dvd
http://www.netflix.com/
http://www.mheducation.com/