Gina Telaroli
February 28, 2008 | 10:06 am EST
Isabella Rossellini gives a whole to meaning to the phrase “putting the bee in the hive” with her new series of short films, Green Porno. Rossellini’s directorial debut features eight 2-minute short films depicting the famous actress dressed up as various insects doing the nasty, all the while explaining in her signature velvety tone the physiological process of bug sex. The films are titled: Earthworm, Dragonfly, Bee, Firefly, Snail, Spider, Fly and Praying Mantis.
Gwyneth Paltrow has teamed up with Unicef to make a new short film that dramatizes a new poem from Simon Armitage. Paltrow narrates the film that deals with HIV and a mother and daughter’s experience with it.
The film is a part of Unicef’s Born Free From HIV Campaign. They want to inform people that “almost every minute of every day, a baby is born with HIV, passed on by their mother during pregnancy, labour or delivery. This is because only one in five mothers with HIV receive the right medicine and care to prevent passing on the virus to their babies. Without treatment, most of 
these children will not live to see their second birthday.”
to watch the video
to sign a petition that will be sent to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, asking him to secure funding to help babies be born free of HIV when he attends the G8 Finance Ministers’ meeting in 2008.
to learn more about the gift campaign.
The “Migrant Memories - Precarious Lives” Documentary Film Series, which opens tonight at NYU’s King Juan Carlos Center, is a series of four documentaries and discussions on memories of migration and precarious work-life conditions from/to Spain. The series is free! And all films have English subtitles.
Tonight’s film is Said’s Journey, which won the Goya (Spain’s equivalent of an Oscar) for Best Animation Short, tells the story of a Moroccan boy who crosses the sea to Spain but discovers that the world is not as beautiful as he has been told. Check out the trailer, above. Although it’s not in English, Said’s ambivalence, fear, and excitement, manifested in his vision of Spain as a frightening and alluring amusement park, is universal. So and check out the festival. If you can’t make Said’s Journey, you can still see three other great films on migration and memory. And learn more about Moroccan immigrants in Spain here.