GoodTube, a video sharing site dedicated to all things Good, is here and is live and wants you to check out the videos they have to offer.  So what is GoodTube?  Well, it was created by a group of documentarians that didn’t think that great charities they were filming were getting enough presence through their films.  Hence, GoodTube.  As the site states,

It [GoodTube] provides charities with a way to showcase their work, reach potential donors and inspire viewers. It is a place for video enthusiasts with a Good message to connect with a global audience. GoodTube is a non profit, non religious enterprise, and it is 100 percent free.

There are many categories under which videos can fall, be in Environment, Crisis Assistance, Health and Nutrition, Peace, and a million things in between.  Here’s a video I found under the Environment section.

And anyone can upload a video…all you need to do is sign up!

Read the rest of this entry »

Garbage Island, the world’s biggest garbage pile floating the middle of the Pacific Ocean, is the subject of a new documentary series on VBS.tv. For those who until now thought the 100 million ton trash vortex was an urban myth, the documentary series is a sobering portrayal of one of the worst ecological disasters of our time. You can view Part 1 below:

Read the rest of this entry »

What did you eat yesterday? Chances are somewhere in your meal and snack choices was some corn. Don’t believe me? You should head on over to I-Tunes tomorrow and download a fascinating documentary called King Corn. Katie blogged about King Corn when it was in theaters and now, along with being on DVD, King Corn is making the move to I-Tunes.

You can now download the documentary that will make you question everything that you eat (as I write this I’m looking at my coffee, yogurt and cliff bar rather quizzically). As summer nears and more and more local food markets open, this may be the perfect time to hang out with a film that discusses what’s in our food and where it comes from.

takepart to download the film now and to watch the trailer and learn more, click here >>>

Read the rest of this entry »

Last night was the premiere of the Media that Matters Film Festival! 12 awesome new short films that all inspire action and change were screened with many filmmakers in attendance. Two of those filmmakers were myself and fellow TakePart blogger Wendy Cohen - we made a short film with the Meerkat Media Collective about the disappearing honeybees and local beekeepers.

The films in this year’s fest are also up online now so and watch some of them!

Below are some pictures from the event and stay tuned for video from the premiere and more pictures and video from the awards ceremony tonight and the second screening that takes place tomorrow. And come back next week for profiles on some of the films that are a part of this years festival!

MORE PICS HERE >>>>

Read the rest of this entry »

“Bigger, Stronger, Faster*”, an upcoming documentary from Magnolia Pictures, explores steroid use from an intimate perspective: the filmmaker’s family. With the backdrop of Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco and a host of other steroid-associated athletes dominating the headlines, Director Christopher Bell’s timely film confronts the issue head on in interviews with his brothers, a pair of unapologetic steroid users.

“Mad Dog” Mike Bell began using steroids in college, feeling it was vital to his ambitions of becoming a professional wrestler. “Smelly” Mark Bell is a hardcore power lifter who cannot fathom working out without performance enhancing drugs. Minus the fingerwagging and simplistic moralizing often heard from politicians and the press, the Bell brothers’ candid firsthand insight into the subject allows the audience a true look into the mind of a steroid user and the way they justify repeatedly and habitually putting highly dangerous substances into their bloodstreams. The philosophy behind their hedonistic pursuits of bigger, stronger and faster bodies breaks down to the quintessential question enabling excess in our society, and asked by the Director himself: Why should I stop, when everyone else is doing it?

Read the rest of this entry »

Yikes! The AP reports that seventeen of the nation’s 50 largest cities had high school graduation rates lower than 50 percent, with the lowest graduation rates reported in Detroit, Indianapolis and Cleveland. The report released Tuesday by America’s Promise Alliance, found that in the nation’s largest cities only about half of the students in public school systems receive diplomas whereas students in suburban and rural public high schools were more likely to graduate than those in urban public high schools.

Nationally, about 70 percent of U.S. students graduate on time with a regular diploma and about 1.2 million students drop out annually.
“When more than 1 million students a year drop out of high school, it’s more than a problem, it’s a catastrophe,” said former Secretary of State Colin Powell, founding chair of the alliance.
His wife, Alma Powell, the chair of the alliance, said students need to graduate with skills that will help them in higher education and beyond. “We must invest in the whole child, and that means finding solutions that involve the family, the school and the community.” The Powell’s organization was beginning a national campaign to cut high school dropout rates. [AP]

A good education starts with a good teacher. The PBS documentary The First Year offers some insight into the challenges that teachers face when

Read the rest of this entry »

Last month I blogged about the upcoming debut of the film The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo a shocking exposé of a ic of Congo (DRC). Now you can take even more action and join hundreds of activists and viewers across the country to watch the premiere of this HBO documentary. The organization ENOUGH has teamed with HBO to coordinate and organize house screenings across the U.S. to view and discuss the film together on Tuesday, April 8th at 10:00 PM EDT.

The ENOUGH project is a group that uses in-depth knowledge to create clear, viable policy recommendations, and engage activists to apply pressure on the perpetrators and well-meaning governments whose own inertia prevents them from taking the steps necessary to stop genocide and

Read the rest of this entry »

Mediarights.org has a great interview with Lisa F. Jackson, director of the film The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo which will premiere on HBO April 8th. The film, which won a Special Jury prize from Sundance this year was shot in the war zones of the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2006. The documentary breaks the silence surrounding the tens of thousands of women and girls who have been kidnapped, raped and sexually tortured in that country’s intractable civil war.

Just viewing the short trailer below sent chills through my body. I feel infuriated and disgusted by the horrors these poor victims of war have faced and continue to face. I can only imagine the powerful impact this film will have on viewers.

and visit the links page for The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo which features a comprehensive list of organizations working to help women in the Congo.

Nicole did a great blog post about Takepart’s “I am Voting For..” campaign that got me a little curious about some of the other videos folks have made about the issues that are important to them. They’re all great, but I was really struck by Bradley Whitford’s video:

I think what stood out for me was when he said “Really, I’m voting for hearts and minds, think about it.”

Beyond being really great, that quote got me to thinking about a film actually called Hearts and Minds:

Read the rest of this entry »

King Corn is a movie about “Two friends, one acre of corn and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation.” Directors Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis were college buddies who decided to leave the city, move to farm in Iowa and grow corn, in order to find out about the crop that is used in everything we eat, from hamburgers, to soda, to donuts. 9 months (and 31,000 seeds, a 10,000-pound harvest of corn) later, the crop yield was so huge it would be able to yield 57,348 cans of soda, 3,894 corn-fed hamburgers, 2,301 pounds of bacon or 6,726 boxes of frosted corn flake. The two filmmakers put the corn into Cheney and Ellis used the corn to feed livestock, and turned the rest into ethanol and sweeteners, such as corn syrup. Curious about how much corn they were ingesting, Cheney and Ellis got their hair “corn tested” and discovered the food made up 58% and 53% of their diets.

Read the rest of this entry »