Tomorrow, Thursday June 25, in Second Life there will be a candelight vigil on behalf of the people of Iran at 2PM PST and 7PM PST. The location is the Roissy sim (click here to teleport directly.) The demonstration today at the beautiful Al Andalus sim was very moving, with 30-some avatars holding candles, sharing…
Category: Civil Society
“The Reckoning” documentary about International Criminal Court premiering July 14 on PBS
The Reckoning , a powerful documentary about the International Criminal Court, will be premiering on US television on July 14 on PBS. Over 120 countries have united to form the International Criminal Court (ICC) — the first permanent court created to prosecute perpetrators, no matter how powerful, of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide….
Global Kids Youth Leaders Premiere “Discovered” Machinima on July 1 in NYC
On July 1, 2009, 15 New York City public high school students will premiere their film Discovered –a digital "machinima" film produced in Second Life that explores the powerful issue of child sex trafficking through the fictional story of one Mexican teenager. Discovered is the final product of a year-long, intensive digital filmmaking program called…
Interview with Lynette Wallworth, Aussie multimedia installation artist
Here's a cool Second Life interview with Lynette Wallworth, a truly innovative Australian artist who creates emotionally powerful video installations that break the wall between the viewer and the video. I love Lynette's work, which transforms physical space and draws you into the video in a way that a computer screen or even an IMAX…
Final stages of “Discovered” — serious machinima film on child sex trafficking
We are in the final stages of post-production for "Discovered," the serious issue machinima created by the youth filmmakers in our "Virtual Video Project" at Global Kids. The difficult subject our youth have chosen is child sex trafficking, and they did an amazing job crafting a short film from the issue. I'm really impressed with…
Global Kids teen Sabienne featured in NY Daily News!
The New York Daily News has a sweet article about five New York teens who beat the odds by graduating. The story features Global Kids teen leader Sabienne Brutus! In 2005, the High School for Global Citizenship student and her siblings moved to Crown Heights from Haiti to escape the country’s political instability and to…
Draxtor interviews Chelo Alvarez-Stehle about “SOS-Slaves” game on sex trafficking
This is the second in a series of interviews conducted by citizen journalist / machinimatographer Draxtor Despres with participants in the BAVC Producers Institute. In this interview, Draxtor talks with Chelo Alvarez-Stehle about her project on sex-trafficking, called "Sands Of Silence." I was one of the mentors on this project at the Producers Institute. Looking…
Appreciating my role as a “Connector”
Post-processing my experience being a "mentor" at the BAVC Producers Institute in San Francisco last week, I've been realizing some of the unique aspects of my own personal journey and how that has shaped me into the odd amalgamation of activist / technologist / educator/ dancer/ Quaker etc. This past week has helped me to…
BAVC Producer’s Institute Finale: Pitching your project!
The culminating event of the BAVC Producer's Institute is a presentation of the eight projects being developed here to a group of potential funders, partners and distributors. The challenge presented to each team was to develop and present a prototype of a participatory media project that creates social change. It's an intense and nerve-wracking experience…
Draxtor’s report on the BAVC Producer’s Institute
Here's the first in a series of machinima reports by my friend Draxtor Despres on the Producer's Institute, run by the Bay Area Video Coalition in San Francisco. Draxtor's first guest is Wendy Levy of BAVC, the coordinator of the Institute, explaining what it's all about.