The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Several topics really stood out this week, including the Oscars as social advocacy inspiration, civil rights and Black History Month, and lots of hot news on entertainment going Green. Check out our most popular posts of the week on these subjects, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites.

Katie:

Happy Belated “Freedom to Marry” Week!

Rosa and Raymond Parks: Valiant Valentine #5

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Nicole:

Top 10 Oscar Picks to Inspire Social Action

Cornel West: Black Thoughts On Black History Month

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Giulia:

H&M’s “Fashion Against AIDS”

Ed Begley Jr. Goes Green

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Gina:

Top 10 Best Picture Winners That Inspire

Remixing “Chicago 10″

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Kerry:

How To Set the World On Fire Without Burning Out

Eco-Brokers Cater to Green Homebuyers

Yesterday I talked about a few of the Best Supporting Actor nominees that I thought needed a bit more attention, today I’m going to look at a film that is hidden away in four categories, but also deserves more attention - Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Nominated for “Best Adapted Screenplay”, “Best Cinematography”, “Best Editing” and “Best Director” for Julian Schnabel, the film is clearly of great technical merit, but more than that, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is one of the most inspiring films I have seen in sometime.

An experiment in form and point of view, Schnabel tells the true story of Jean-Dominque Bauby, the editor of French Elle who had a paralyzing stroke at the age of 47, resulting in “locked in syndrome.” Bauby was only able to communicate by blinking his eye but managed to write a book about his life and experience as a prisoner of his own body.

Schnabel used a swivel and tilt lens to tell much of the story through our main character’s perspective. In this way, everyone is Jean-Do’s world stares right into the camera and we experience what is happening just as Jean-Do did, with characters out of our line of sight more often than not. About halfway through, we also begin to see things from an objective POV, just as Jean-Do begins to find his own way to live.

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The 80th Annual Academy Awards are almost upon us, and I’m sure you all have your favorite films that you’re routing for. We here at TakePart have our fave films too, of course based on their relevance to social action and advocacy. Check out our picks for these top 10 Oscar categories, and how these films have left the world a bit of a better place than before they arrived on the big (or little) screen!

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Actor in a Leading Role: Tommy Lee Jones in In the Valley of Elah

Tommy Lee Jones gives an incredible performance as a war veteran searching for his son, a soldier who recently returned from Iraq, but has now mysteriously disappeared. The shadow of the Iraq war is cast across several films that have been nominated this year, but Jones’ moving performance highlights the emotional and spiritual battles soldiers and their families must face long after they’ve come home from the combat zone.

and find out what you can do to help Veterans for Peace seek justice for veterans and victims of war, and to abolish war as an instrument of national policy.

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