We are ecstatic to share that our friends from Village Beat will be screening their documentary Tough Bond at Hot Docs this week! 

Before they were off and running the festival circuit, we got to pick their brain about how their whole journey started. Check it out.

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Dana Gluckstein, spoke at the World Economic Forum (WEF), January 2013, in Davos, Switzerland as a faculty member on the Arts and Culture panels.  As one of twenty five international artists selected, she was invited to address many of the world’s leading stakeholders and change-makers.  Her theme was  “improving the state of the world through the arts - shifting mind sets” based on her book, DIGNITY, In Honor of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the associated photography exhibition.  Dana spoke about how DIGNITY helped create the tipping point for President Obama to adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in December 2010. Following this historic event, the associated DIGNITY: TRIBES IN TRANSITION exhibition was invited to the United Nations at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, July – August, 2010, sponsored by the United States. Dana was the keynote speaker along with U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. and the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. DIGNITY was published in association with Amnesty International for their 50th anniversary in 2010, and is now in its second publication in English and German. 

We are excited to share that our creative activists' film, Living on One Dollar, is available for free on Hulu and Hulu Plus from April 22nd to May 3rd! The film follows four young friends as they set out to live on just $1 a day for two months in rural Guatemala. They battle hunger, parasites and find no easy answers as they attempt to understand how 1.1 this level. 

So happy to see that CAP Project BeRemedy was featured on both CNN and CBS!

Creative Activist Julie Garner and her project Project Yellow Light were featured on CNN.

Read more about her project here

YOGAWOMAN had their Japanese Premiere in Tokyo last month and received extraordinary interest! Mae Yoshikawa, a star in the film, said "Japanese women are very much interested in yoga. Because today's modern woman is not merely interested in physical beauty. Of course we care about our body, but we also care about matters of our mind. Yoga itself is a purification of the body and mind."

YOGAWOMAN  will also be screened in Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka and Kyoto. Find out more about this exciting project here.

Brandaid Project has designed a fantastic décor and art collection, tested it in London at Selfridges and are now looking to launch in North America! They hope to expand their model to different countries and to support a significant build out of their web and mobile approach that could position them as the hub for development and micro marketing worldwide.

This recent success is only the tip of the iceberg. Brandaid has been creating innovative ways to support the repair and sustainability of artisans. In 2010, they helped rebuild artisans ateliers and provided them market access to the largest US retailer: Macy's.

Purchasing one of these handcrafted masterpieces directly benefits Haitian artisans by allowing them to support their families with dignity and purpose. Artisans receive 22 percent of the retail price for each item in the collection.

“Just keep swimming” is the new mantra for creative activists Bristol Baughan and Erin Heidenreich, executive producers of the film The Other Shore.

Directed by Tim Wheeler, the film follows

world record holder and legendary swimmer Diana Nyad as she comes out of a thirty-year retirement to re-attempt an elusive dream: swimming 103 miles non-stop from Cuba to Florida.

After premiering at SXSW Film Festival, the film got a nice shout out in the Hollywood Reporter.

Read the article here.

Our favorite redhead and fearless leader, Kathy Eldon, traveled to the great state of Texas to try out her southern accent at Clear Creek High School where she imparted her invaluable pearls of wisdom on Creative Activism to over 3000 students.

Kathy accompanied the Dan Eldon Pop-Up Exhibit to Houston where it was featured for the month of January.

To read more about her trip visit: http://kathyeldon.com/creative-visions-at-clear-creek-high-school/

To see if the Dan Eldon Pop-Up is coming near you visit: http://www.daneldon.org/category/exhibition/

Creative Activist Daniela Kon is working wonders again with her project Deeda Productions as they organize the first ever Social Impact Media Awards.

SIMA 2013 is an international documentary and educational impact media competition honoring members in the independent film and global humanitarian industry. 

Their aim is to promote the stories of independent filmmakers, journalists, aid organizations and grassroots change-makers (i.e. our kind of people) that too often remain overlooked, and to provide a springboard for creative media that exemplifies excellence in its potential to inspire change.

The deadline for submissions is FEBURARY 15^th – so get going!

To learn more about SIMA 2013 visit: http://socialimpactmediaawards.com/

Show off your skills and submit here: http://socialimpactmediaawards.com/?page_id=42

It’s no secret that we get to work with some pretty incredible people. This week we are beaming with pride - like a mom at her child’s dance recital - as we cheer on Creative Activist Cori Shepherd Stern for her Oscar nomination for her film “Open Heart.”  

The film follows eight Rwandan children who leave their families behind and embark on a life-or-death journey to receive high-risk open-heart surgery in Africa’s only free-of-charge, state-of-the-art cardiac hospital. 

Cori was a CAP member with her project The Name Campaign  back when our “founding mothers” (Kathy and Amy) were still running CVF out of their closet. 

To learn more about the film or to see the trailer: http://openheartfilm.com/

To check out the competition visit: http://oscar.go.com/nominees

What do we have in common with Greta Garbo?

Besides an incredible sense of style and being ridiculously good-looking, we happen to know her great-nephew/former CVF Board Member, Derek Reisfield.

Mr. Reisfield was kind enough to help us to join forces with fashion icons and influencers alike to host a sneak preview and off-catalog auction of Garbo’s Estate prior to its official auction at Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills.

Julien's auctioned off items from the Estate to help us raise funds to continue to do what we do best.

Listen to Creative Activist Hayden Bixby's interview on KSER radio, select 4PM, January 11th, "Sound Living" : kser.org/radio-replayer

-Cura Orphanage
CAP Member 

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CVF is proud to announce that Village Beat will be premiering their film "Tough Bond" at the Berlin Film Festival! See their trailer here.

We're excited to announce that a few new stellar creative activists have joined our Creative Activist Program (CAP)! This week we want you to meet Mark Denega.

Check out his project H.O.P.E. Was Here, a feature-length documentary-in-progress that tells the story of a Stonehill College alternative spring break trip to the slums of Lima, Peru from two juxtaposing points-of-view: that of the American volunteers, and that of the Peruvian locals whom they visit. Read More

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"The Recycled Orchestra provides a unique opportunity to teach these kids music education. Music education can be of tremendous benefit to a young mind. "

-Landfill Harmonic
CAP Member 

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October 2012 saw the debut of CARRY THE WORLD: Women and Peace, adapted from and inspired by photography and interviews featured in Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist, Marissa Roth’s 28 year-long photo study, ONE PERSON CRYING: Women and War. The production was adapted and directed by Diana Castle, from the transcripts of Marissa photographic journey, UNHCR and the PBS series I Came to Testify: Women, War and Peace in Bosnia.

Drawn together by the women’s testimonials, the inspired cast included Shohreh Aghdashloo, Yareli Arizmendi, Alexandra Chun, Colleen Duffy, Constance Ejuma, Jennifer Hasty, and Katarina Radivojevic.

CARRY THE WORLD: Women and Peace was produced by Creative Visions Foundation in association with The Imagined Life Theater and made possible by The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust.

The performances took place at The Imagined Life Theatre with a special evening at the Los Angeles Museum of Tolerance. Also present and on hand to further awareness was a cross-section of the humanitarian community, including CARE International, Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, Human Rights Watch, International Medical Corps and the Levantine Cultural Center.

Over 600 guests attended the performances, including Broadway producer and Tony Award nominee, Tara Smith, Susan Blythe and Terry Merkle from Theatre for Humans; Tamara Trione of Nancy Seltzer & Associates, Inc; Julianne Reynolds of Romanski Films; Dr Gabriela Fried of Cal State University. 

Check out photos from the event  HERE 

"We are so humbled that TALIBE received an award for BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY and BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT at the International Movie Awards 2012! 

Let's keep the momentum going! Help us continue fighting for TALIBES' Rights to Education, Health, and Safety -http://deedaproductions.com/help-the-talibes/"

- Deeda Productions

CAP MEMBER

• Website: www.deedaproductions.com
• Get involved: www.deedaproductions.com/help-the-talibes
• Join them on Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/DEEDA-Productions

"This fall, we packed our lives into a 1978 bus to hold screening events at 25 colleges across the nation to inspire and empower young people to confront global poverty."

-Living on One
CAP Member 

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"This is the followup to the original Caine's Arcade short film. 5 months later, Caine's Arcade has gone global, inspiring a wave of cardboard creativity, an Imagination Foundation, and a Global Cardboard Challenge. Register & Find an Event to Play: cardboardchallenge.com"

- The Imagination Foundation
CAP Member

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