Our second installation of the TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is here give you the very best of Katie, Nicole, Giulia, Gina and Kerry! More blogs means more to love this Valentine’s Day week, and more social action means a healthier and happier world for everyone. Check out our most popular posts of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites.

Katie:

5 Ways to Take Action and Get Action On Valentine’s Day

Top 10 Guilt-Free Valentine’s Day Jewelry Gifts: Show Your Valentine You Have a Heart

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Nicole:

Kiva: Microlending to Change Lives

Top 10 New Releases to Inspire Social Change

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Giulia:

Alicia Keys Uses Grammys to Help Keep a Child Alive

V-Day Celebrates Its 10 Year Anniversary!

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Gina:

Top 10 Movie Characters That Make A Difference

Art As Politics In “The Silence Before Bach”

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Kerry:

Tap Project Gets Donations Flowing For Safe Global Water

Levon Helms’ “Dirt Farmer” Wins Grammy Gold

Mike Leigh may not have a history of being a “happy go-lucky” director, but he is one of my favorite directors. His films, like Vera Drake, All or Nothing and Naked, usually take a look at a more dour side of life. Imagine my (and the film community at large’s) surprise when Mike Leigh showed up at the Berlin Film Festival this year with a film called Happy Go-Lucky.

The story of Leigh’s film revolves around Poppy, a primary schoolteacher with a positive outlook on life and

While it is a comedy, the film had a serious intent and expressed something “very important”, he (Leigh) said. “At the beginning of the 21st century, when we’re in a world that’s heading towards disaster, it’s important to reject the growing fashion to be miserabilist, the growing fashion to be pessimistic and gloomy because the world is in a bad way. Everywhere there are people on the ground getting on with it and being positive.”

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Movies can do a lot of things, they can entertain us, they can educate us, they can take us somewhere new and now and then they can inspire us - they can tell stories about people who did what was right, who stood up and made a difference.

In that spirit, I give you a list of my Top 10 Movie Characters that Made a Difference. For this list I only used films made in the English language - I’ll work on a foreign film list soon. Some of the folks listed are based on real people, some are made up, some are successful in their ventures, some are not - either way, their efforts, their desire to set things right, is a difference in and of itself. Sometimes two characters in a movie worked together, so I listed both (but counted them as one) - this just goes to show how powerful working together can be.

So read on and let me know if I’ve missed one of your favorite inspirational characters - lucky for us movie-goers there are a lot out there.

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1. Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird - I first saw this as a child, as many people do, and it changed the way I looked at the world, as I’m sure it does for many people. The story of a daughter recollecting her father’s defense of a black man who has been wrongly accused of rape is a true testament to doing what’s right. A clear example of standing up against injustice and prejudice, Atticus Finch is every little girl’s hero (and should be!)

to learn more about the rights defendants have, regardless of resources.

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