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!

Nicole Hughes:

Should Drive-Thrus Be Banned?

Eco-Moms Mad About “Greenwash” Barbie

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Andy Kondrat:

Home Depot Will Recycle Your CLF Bulbs for Free

Department of Energy Predicts 50% Energy Increase By 2030

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Jon Popham:

NYC Waterfalls Installation Starts This Week

Capt. John Smith Is Back…and Running for President

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Giulia Rozzi:

Yoga Across the Border

Emile Norman: By His Own Design

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Gina Telaroli:

Silverdocs 08: A Post-Fest Wrap-Up

Human Rights Watch 08: Letter to Anna

It’s June 27th, I’m Gina Telaroli and this is TakePart.com’s look at the week in social action

A Wrap-Up

Silverdocs officially wrapped up its 2008 festival on Monday, announcing winners and putting an end to a great week of documentary film. Here is a little wrap-up including takepart links for some of the films I saw, plus the winners:

1) The Sterling US Feature Award went to a film called The Garden. I didn’t see The Garden, but my good pal did. She loved it and came out of the screening excited and moved. The film follows a group of farmers in their struggle to save their land, a 14 acre community garden that rose up after the 1992 riots. When development reared its ugly head and threatened to the turn the garden into warehouses a battle ensued in the courts and on the street and thus a film was made.

takepart to learn more about the farmers and the film.

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A Photo Diary

I know I promised some behind the scenes Silverdocs photos - so here you go. Enjoy and be sure to takepart and learn about how the Brooklyn Museum is using the power of digital cameras to curate an exciting new exhibit:

Me pretending to be the Silverdocs logo = laser eyes!

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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 some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

Nicole Hughes:

U.S. Media Ignores Link Between Midwest Floods and Global Warming

Top 10 Houseplants for Removing Indoor Air Pollution

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Andy Kondrat:

Dubai to Build Rotating Positive Energy Tower

Bioethicist Peter Singer Tackles World Food Shortage

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Jon Popham:

Americacorps Workers Assist Flood Ravaged Town

Australians “Out-Fat” Americans

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Giulia Rozzi:

Progressive Book Club

Oprah Recommends “A New Earth”

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Gina Telaroli:

Human Rights Watch 2008 Film Festival Update

SilverDocs 2008 Update

Dust (directed by Hartmut Bitomsky)

This is a film I loved so much in theory and am so glad it is exactly how it is, that being said it wasn’t easy to watch. Bitomsky’s tale of the small particles that keep the cleaning industry afloat is simply collection of interviews and information all about what dust is and how we interact with it. There is no real arc or story, although he starts out with the smallest application of dust and brings the tale full circle with talk of the military and the formation of the earth.   Dust it seems is more complicated than one might think.

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Corridor #8 : (directed by Boris Despodov)

I just got out of a phenomenal little movie called Corridor #8. It’s a series of little vignettes featuring people who from Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania and all live along a proposed road project that would link all of the Balkan countries together. The road project is appropriately called Corridor #8.  I went in expecting a political dialogue about the road project and instead was swept away by the lives and stories of the folks captured on Despodov’s camera. He traces the history of the 3 countries connection not through detailed accounts of times past but through the observations of his subjects, which in turn give the shape of his film heart.

Sadly enough I only have 2 more movies to see here before I hit the road (and the ferry) to go to the Nantucket Film Festival where I’m screening Every Third Bite. I won’t be as active tomorrow due to being on the road, but I’ll have some more HRWFF stuff up and hoepfully an evening arrival to Nantucket post.

It’s been a great few days and I’m excited to write it all up in more detail, let you all know how you can TakePart with the issues in the amazing films I have seen and post the awesome pictures I’ve been taking.

For now, go below the fold to see a trailer for Corridor #8 (the director just walked into the Cinema Lounge where I’m blogging - yay! film festivals!)

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PLUS

EQUALS

Me being one happy filmmaker and one happy blogger! I’ll have a lot of pictures and videos to show you once I get an upload cord, but here is the skinny on DocuClub, Meerkat Media, Stages and our Silverdocs screening!

DocuClub : http://www.mediarights.org/docuclub/

DocuClub is a film screening series of works-in-progress documentaries. Each month, a filmmaker presents a rough cut of her film. Afterwards, a moderator facilitates a discussion between filmmaker and audience. Constructive feedback from these sessions informs the finished film. Past films that have been screened at DocuClub include Born Into Brothels, The Boys of Baraka, and Metallica: Some Kind of Monster.

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So far so good! It’s my last day at Silverdocs but so far it has been nothing short of amazing. Here’s a little refresher on what I’ve seen and also a list of what’s to come. Stay tuned for more Silverdocs 08 and for a comprehensive write-up stocked full of TakePart links about how you can connect to the issues in the films.

Thus Far:

• Silverdocs 08 : Head Wind
• Silverdocs 08 : Meet the Paro (Mechanical Love)
• Silverdocs 08 : Opening Night and All Together Now

To Come:

• A look at Up the Yangtze : http://silverdocs.com/festival/films/2008/yangtze/
• A discussion of the DocuClub screening of my film Stages
  
• Some shorts : http://silverdocs.com/festival/films/2008/shorts-program-4-disconnections/
• Corridor 8 : http://silverdocs.com/festival/films/2008/corridor-8/
• Frederick Wiseman’s Law and Order : http://silverdocs.com/festival/films/2008/law-and-order/
• A film that’s all about Dust : http://silverdocs.com/festival/films/2008/dust/
• More video!!!!
• Lot’s of pictures

For now, here are some pictures from pal Cheryl - who also has a film in this years’ fest!

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/23166402@N06/sets/72157605653795062/
  

Head Wind (directed by Mohammad Rasoulof)

I love my Netflix.. Even though they don’t have a lot of movies that I want to see, they also have a ton of films I do want to see - which makes me and all Netflix users pretty lucky. Freedom to a large variety of cinema is of course not something all folks across the world, especially not in Iran, as Mohammad Rasolouf’s new documentary Head Wind points out. In the film, Rasolouf paints small portraits of the people and communities that are working to bring outside images sounds and cinema to the people of Iran, where they are currently banned by the government.

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