The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

Katie Halper:

“The First Time I Every Saw Your Face” May Be the First Time You Hear About Ewan MacColl

California’s Gay Marriage Ban Overturned & 5 Ways To Take Action

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Nicole Hughes:

“Bottlemania” Book Takes Bottled Water Industry To Task

Arnold Tells Automakers To “Stop Whining” About Tougher California Emissions Standards

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Andy Kondrat:

Department of Energy Forecasts Large Increase In Wind Power Usage

Edward Norton & Gavin Newsom Speak To Congress About Environmental Building Practices

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Jon Popham:

Spencer Tunick Strips Hundreds Naked

Lichtenstein Sculptures At Fairchild Garden In Miami

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Giulia Rozzi:

Does Being Ethical Pay?

Is the Anti-Female Genial Mutilation Campaign Offensive?

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Gina Telaroli:

A Global Look At Media On Pangea Day

Everything Cinema: Brody Takes On the Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard

It’s May 16th, I’m Gina Telaroli and this is TakePart.com’s look at the week in social action…

Pangea Day was on Saturday and the whole world came together to celebrate! Wendy posted an great recap of LA’s celebration and no doubt there were many awesome celebration’s across the globe. Here in NYC, our good friends at Shooting People, NYWIFT and DCTV hosted their own screening. But worry not if you missed out on the festivities, there are great videos about the power of media to connect us all at Pangea Day’s YouTube site.. Here’s a video that explains more about why the whole thing was so awesome:

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HBO has announced their summer documentary program line-up. The season will kick off on June 9th with the new documentary, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, based on Roman Polanski and the statutory-rape case against him.

Also on board is a new doc on Heidi Fleiss, one about high school teens in Iraq called Baghdad High and one that focuses on Bush’s No Child Left Behind act.

There are a lot of great docs on the schedule including Section 60: Arlington National Cemetery.

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The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out our most popular articles of the week on a variety of subjects, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites.

Katie:

Dean Karmen Shows Steven Colbert How To Filter Water

St Patricks Day Goes Green with Green Beer: Top 10 Eco Beers

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Nicole:

East Meets West at Dubai Art Fair, But Shadow of Migrant Labor Remains

TakePart’s “I Am Voting For” Campaign Wants You To Vote the Issues

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Giulia:

Simon Cowell Gives Big

Scarlett Johansson Dates For Charity

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Gina:

Top 10 Easter Films

Top 10 Films That Have Helped to Frame the War in Iraq

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Kerry:

Aqua Colbert Massage In a Bottle

Dakota the Mummified Duckbilled Dinosaur Gets Its Rocks Off

Today, March 19, marks the 5 year anniversary of the war in Iraq. Regardless of how you personally feel about the war, one thing that’s have been positive and necessary over the past 5 years, are the many films and other forms of media being made that deal with the war and work to inform us as a public. So as to encourage folks to spend some time reflecting on our current situation I present you with the Top 10 Films That Have Helped to Frame the War in Iraq.

Some of these films deal directly with the conflict, others with ideas of war in general and some with what led us to war and what has happened since. All of these movies are available on Netflx and many should be in your local video stores - so and rent one today:

1. Iraq in Fragments, directed by James Longley

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Errol Morris premiered his new film, Standard Operating Procedure, at The Berlin Film Festival on Tuesday night. The documentary follows in the footsteps of films like Alex Gibney’s Taxi to the Dark Side and takes on the issue of war and how digital imagery can change our perspective on it. While other films have dealt with the actual acts caught on tape, Morris takes a deeper look into context of the actual photographs.

Morris has always dealt with his subject matter in unique ways, right down to filming his interviews in a machine called the interrotron . In Standard Operating Procedure he uses re-created scenes and fictional footage, storytelling methods he has used in the past. At the press conference following the film, some journalists gave him a hard time about this and asked about such use:

“With due respect I think this is nonsense talk,” he told the reporter at the press conference, “There’s this idea that truth is guaranteed by somehow the style of presentation, that if I run around with a handheld camera and I shoot with available light that is somehow more truthful.” Continuing, Morris noted, “Truth is a quest…something that I have never lost sight of and never will.” [Indiewire]

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