Israeli filmmaker competes against Iranian and Algerian in the Near East finals of 2010 Democracy Video Challenge.
An Israeli, Algerian and Iranian filmmaker have been chosen as Near Eastern finalists for the 2010 Democracy Video Challenge for original short videos completing the phrase “Democracy is …”
The 90-second Israeli film plays on the theme democracy is freedom of speech. The two-minute Iranian film is animated and has multiple messages on the quest for liberty and the two-and-a-half-minute Algerian film says democracy is freedom of the mind.
“The message in my film is not as much personal as it is global. It speaks to everyone, not just to me. It has universal values,” said the maker of the Israeli film Tomer Yair Zemel.
Sponsored by the Center for International Private Enterprise in partnership with the US government and film industry organizations, the contest aims to build a global discussion around democratic values. The US State Department quietly backed the competition as a way to spread the idea of democracy across the world.
But just what does democracy mean? This film competition provides an opportunity for people across the world to spell it out.
“There is a woman and there is someone with a mask holding her mouth and she is struggling with him to get out and she finally gets out of his hands and she screams like crazy. Then we write at the end of the movie ‘Democracy is freedom… of speech,’” Zemel told the Media Line.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqBWkba9wnU [1]
With a chance to win a free trip to Hollywood, hundreds of filmmakers rose to the challenge and submitted their films online for the competition. The only criteria were that the films be under three minutes and deal with democracy.
The Israeli, Iranian and Algerian films were chosen as finalists out of 27 semi-finalists from the Near East, including from Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, UAE and Yemen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI6oOgG-HRg&feature=player_embedded [2]
A total of 18 finalists from six areas of the globe have been chosen, with the Israeli, Algerian and Iranian films competing against each other for the Near East title. Six grand prize winners, one from each geographic region of the world, will receive an all-expense-paid trip to Los Angeles, New York and Washington DC in September. They will also receive gala screenings of the winning video and exposure of their films to the American film and television industry, international filmmakers, as well as democracy advocates within government, media and civil society.
Living in Israel, Zemel recognized the courage required by other filmmakers in Iran and elsewhere who perhaps faced greater obstacles to get their democratic message out.
“I have respect for them; what they do is under complete government control and what they do might even cost them their lives. At some point they thought about it and it is pretty brave,” Zemel said. “I wouldn’t usually look at the Algerian or Iranian videos and this does make you think about the other countries, all the countries that submitted videos.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU3Gr6pGuVA [3]
“I am not sure this creates dialogue between nations because we didn’t actually speak to anyone else while making this film, but it does make you see things that you wouldn’t usually see,” he said.
Without much financial backing and with minimal equipment, Zemel said he was surprised his video reached the finals.
“We didn’t think it would go this far. I was just happy to get to the semi-finals,” he said.
“You only have one-and-half minutes. You can’t reinvent the wheel. You got to do something that will relate to other people. You can just do the message good enough so that everybody can understand it and will enjoy looking at it.”
The next challenge of these finalists is to get people to watch and vote for their videos on YouTube, another sponsor of the competition. People around the world can now vote for their favorite videos until June 15, 2010 at midnight.
LINK: www.youtube.com/democracychallenge [5]
The Israeli entry has received strong backing from the US embassy in Tel Aviv.
“We encourage all Israelis to support ‘their’ entry by actively voting and spreading the word about the competition and the Israeli contender,” said a statement from the American Embassy in Tel Aviv.
Since its launch two years ago, more than 1,600 people from 111 countries have submitted entries and spurred the online engagement of at least 1.5 million people, according to the Center for International Private Enterprise, an American organization behind the competition.
“At its core, the ‘Democracy is…’ global conversation capitalizes on technology to provide a platform for people to express themselves. Wherever you live, whoever you are, whatever your opinion is, your voice is welcome,” John Sullivan, Executive Director of the Center for International Private Enterprise said in a statement.
“Our interest is in helping to fuel and grow the conversation so as many people as possible are able to participate. The success of the Democracy Video Challenge validates the power of open, accessible dialogue,” Sullivan said.