Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past eight years, it’s hard to ignore the dismal human rights record of George W. Bush. Where can one begin when you reflect on the human rights abuses, violations of international agreements and government-sanctified torture policies of the Bush Administration? By intimately exploring the stories attached to the infamous photos from Abu Ghraib, our film, Standard Operating Procedure, helped to give us a clearer understanding of the prison which cemented our country’s anti-human rights record and image to the world. Human rights were systematically violated and our global leadership was marginalized because of our policies during the past eight years.

However, since the election, the tide has turned and things are finally looking brighter. President-elect Obama has already indicated a desire to reshape our human rights policies, including closing Guantanamo.

However, for many of the policies changes to occur, the new president and Congress needs to hear from citizens like you and me.  Human Rights First is has made the following a priority for the Obama Administration : the closure of Guantanamo, protection for Iraqi refugees, stop the flow of arms to Darfur and end torture of prisoners in US custody.  Help to make these important goals a reality by signing their letter which will be published in newspapers worldwide.  We voted against torture on November 4th. Let’s help to show the world that we can help to change our policies and have our country return to being the visionary beacon for human rights that we once were. takepart today to sign Human Rights First’s letter.

(photo by habacuc_1988)

This Fall DoSomething.org and Participant’s upcoming film The Soloist are partnering up for Feed the Need, an initiative to get kids across the country to help fight hunger in their communities.  With the goal of collecting one million pounds of food, high schools, middle schools, orchestras and church groups across the country are running food drives to bring hope to communities in need.  Here’s High School Musical’s Corbin Bleu to explain:

takepart by starting your own drive. Find a local participating food bank near you with the widget below and follow these simple steps from DoSomething.org.

I always get a bit sad when a book I’ve been meaning to buy gets turned into a movie and I end up having to buy the book with a new slick, uncreative movie cover art on it. When I buy a book I really like it to stand on it’s own as a work of not only literary art but also visual art. All too often the movie cover of a book is nothing more than an advertisement. Which cover below is your favorite? Unless you’re a huge Julianne Moore fan my guess would be not the third one…

I was excited then to see the work being done on Steve Lopez’s The Soloist. The book has been turned into a movie and with that comes new movie cover art for Lopez’s inspiring and popular story and I am happy to say that change is good one! The cover is based on the artwork below and a smaller version of the book cover can be seen after the jump.

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1) Lone Worker Protection from WorkSafeBC

For the Cinema YouTube Video of the Day, Click here>>

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Darfur Now is a documentary released by Warner Independent Pictures, written and directed by Ted Braun, which explores the Darfur conflict through the first-hand experiences of Don Cheadle, Hejewa Adam, Pablo Recalde, Ahmed Mahmoud Abakar, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, and Adam Sterling. It is a call to action, a call to take action against the genocide that is going on right now– as I write this and as you read this–in Darfur, Sudan. And the Darfur NOW College Tour is not just a movie tour. Organized by STAND (a student anti-genocide coalition) and Participant Productions, the Darfur NOW College Tour is a series of screenings of the film and music concerts, which raise awareness and funds to help the people of Darfur. Don’t miss the closing concert this Thursday, which features performances by OK Go ROCK&ROLL NICO VEGA ZION I RHYMEFEST, AREPA, STAR AFRISOUND, and ANA DIM MAK. The featured speakers are Adam Sterling, from the Genocide Intervention Network, and John Prenderdast.

So and go the concert.
May 29th@ 6pm-11pm
@ UCLA Ackerman Grand Ballroom,
UCLA Campus

And it’s free, with a suggested donation to a great cause, so why would you miss it?

And here’s a map (so you really have no excuse to miss it!)

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3 things I love are the cinema, social action and YouTube! Now, once a day I cam going to combine all 3 in one awesome post by posting an awesome social action YouTube video and an awesome cinema related YouTube video (sometimes maybe I’ll even find one magical video that combines the two)

Like TakePart and Participant Productions, YouTube entertains and informs. With that I give you the

Social Action and Cinema YouTube Videos of the Day:

1) The Real News : US polar bear protection falls short

For the Cinema YouTube Video of the Day, Click here >>>

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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. In celebration of Earth Day 2008, we made ‘green’ the major theme on the TakePart blog this week - green documentaries and television programs, Earth Day quotes and action activities, as well as some great film reviews. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

Katie Halper:

Top 10 Earth Day Videos From the Hub

Joanne Herring Invites You to “Charlie Wilson’s War” Screening Discussion - Free DVD!

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Nicole Hughes:

Top 10 Documentaries About the Environment

Top 10 Ways to Take Action On Earth Day 2008!

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Andy Kondrat:

Top 10 Quotes About the Environment

Disney Launches DisneyNature to Make Documentaries - I Freak Out

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Jon Popham:

B Corporation Takes the Guesswork Out of Going Green

Sea Level Rise Explorer

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Giulia Rozzi:

Oprah and My Mom Going Green

Green It. Mean It.

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Gina Telaroli:

Taking Part In the Blogsphere With “The Visitor” and “Standard Operating Procedure”

“The Soloist” Explores the Homeless and Mentally Ill With Grace and Music

I’m a pretty happy TakePart blogger these days. Not only does Participant Productions have an awesome movie in theaters (Tom McCarthy’s The Visitor) and another one on the way (Errol Morris’ Standard Operating Procedure) but great interviews with the directors and actors keep popping up all over the blogosphere.

Here are some of the pieces I spotted yesterday:

Errol Morris Fixes His Gaze on Abu Ghraib (The New York Sun)

THE VISITOR“The Evening Class Interview With Richard Jenkins (The Evening Class)

THE VISITOR“The Evening Class Interview With Tom McCarthy (The Evening Class)

More on Standard Operating Procedure. (Green Cine Daily)

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On Wednesday The New York Times (and many other news outlets) reported on an immigration/borders story that I worry many folks missed. The below paragraph really says it all:

Securing the nation’s borders is so important, Congress says, that Michael Chertoff, the homeland security secretary, must have the power to ignore any laws that stand in the way of building a border fence. Any laws at all. Last week, Mr. Chertoff issued waivers suspending more than 30 laws he said could interfere with “the expeditious construction of barriers” in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas. The list included laws protecting the environment, endangered species, migratory birds, the bald eagle, antiquities, farms, deserts, forests, Native American graves and religious freedom. [The New York Times]

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Director Jonathan Demme was recently interviewed at BFI Southbank about his Jimmy Carter documentary Jimmy Carter: Man from Plains. The film follows Carter on his recent controversial book tour for Palestine ­Peace Not Apartheid in an effort to explore the public and private sides of a man who has devoted his life to peace . During the interview Demme talks about the film and his influences:

DT: And how much did you really know about his personality before you got involved? What were the things that you discovered?

JD: There’s a profile of Carter in the New Yorker by Hendrick Hertzberg, who writes wonderful political stuff, especially for the New Yorker. He had been a Carter speechwriter and sometime in the early 90s he wrote this incredibly loving profile of Carter. And I was excited because there is this combination of this presidential-sized ego, convinced you’re right, macho, in the sense of striding the world, contrasted with this weepy, big-hearted guy who will burst into tears at the drop of a hat. So that sounded like a nice, complicated character and certainly a more complicated character than we knew of on the basis of what we saw from the media during his presidency and since. [Guardian Unlimited]

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