Announcing Envision 2012: Stories for a Sustainable Future
by Website Update on February 6, 2012
NEW YORK (February 2, 2012) – Envision, a unique partnership between the Independent Filmmaker Project and the United Nations Department of Public Information, is pleased to announce its new partner: JustFilms, the Ford Foundation’s social justice documentary film initiative. Anchored by the UN Millennium Development Goals, Envision, which was founded in 2008, is built on the shared belief that storytelling and documentary film can be powerful tools in building a better future for all people.
Just Films joins the partnership in time to host Envision 2012: Stories for a Sustainable Future at the Ford Foundation’s New York City headquarters on April 16 and 17. Set against the backdrop of the upcoming Rio + 20 conference on sustainable development, Envision 2012 will focus on the urgent challenge of building a sustainable global future with opportunity for all. The program will be built around three key issues: just and sustainable cities, clean water and green energy.
Envision’s annual gathering connects UN experts and NGOs with some of the most creative minds in filmmaking and new media, and helps them work together to find new and compelling ways to create a momentum for social change. Through interactive mini-screenings and conversations, experts and advocates will pitch ideas to filmmakers, who will show how their work can bring complex and seemingly inaccessible issues to life. The day’s interactions and exchanges will result in collaborative, cross-disciplinary partnerships between people with fascinating, urgent stories to tell and people who know how to tell them.
WHEN: April 16 and 17, 2012
WHERE: Ford Foundation, 320 East 43rd Street, New York City
MORE INFORMATION: envisionfilm.org
MEDIA INQUIRIES: [email protected]
About the Partnership
The United Nations
As the public voice of the United Nations, the Department of Public Information is dedicated to communicating the ideals and work of the United Nations to the world; to interacting and partnering with diverse audiences; and to building support for peace, development and human rights for all. The Department promotes global awareness and understanding of the work and ideals of the United Nations, maximizing its global impact. Launched in 2009, the United Nations Creative Community Outreach Initiative was designed to collaborate with the creative community in order to achieve our mutual goals of promoting peace and raising awareness of critical global issues. We believe that awareness is a powerful tool in the face of injustice because it inspires compassionate action. Through creative media, we can bring honor, empathy and compassion to our stories, and, ultimately, to the people who live them.
http://www.un.org/en/creative
Independent Filmmaker Project
The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) is the nation’s oldest and largest not-for-profit advocacy organization for independent filmmakers. Since its debut at the 1979 New York Film Festival, IFP has supported the production of over 7,000 films and offered resources to more than 20,000 filmmakers, providing an opportunity for many diverse voices to be heard. IFP believes that independent films enrich the universal language of cinema, seeding the global culture with new ideas, kindling awareness and fostering activism. The organization championed the early work of pioneering independent filmmakers Charles Burnett, Todd Haynes, Mira Nair, Michael Moore, Joel and Ethan Coen, Kevin Smith and Todd Solondz. IFP continues to play a vital role in launching the first films of many of today’s rising stars on the independent scene, including Debra Granik (“Down to the Bone”), Miranda July (“Me, You and Everyone We Know”), and Ryan Fleck & Anna Boden (“Half Nelson”). www.ifp.org.
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is an independent, nonprofit grant-making organization with its headquarters in New York. For 75 years it has worked with courageous people on the frontlines of social change worldwide, guided by its mission to strengthen democratic values, reduce poverty and injustice, promote international cooperation and advance human achievement. The foundation’s JustFilms initiative, launched in 2011, builds on Ford’s longtime support for documentaries and acknowledges the importance of visual narratives in creating social change. Leveraging the foundation’s global network of regional offices in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia, JustFilms seeks to identify new talent from around the world and to strengthen emerging communities of documentary filmmakers.
www.fordfoundation.org