From The Bermuda Film Festival website:
In September 2000, 191 governments committed to halve world poverty by 2015 and set eight goals to achieve this: the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). At the halfway point, eight directors were invited to share their vision of these major issues, each by way of a short film.
And here’s how effective those 8 short films were: As soon as the houselights came up I came straight home and signed up for an account at Kiva.org
I was more than a bit disheartened by the surprising number of Bermudians who left before the screening was over — most left after the particularly devastating profile of a dying AIDS victim. Their loss, clearly, as the hauntingly beautiful (and equally sad) The Story of Panshin Beka followed directly afterward.
The last short in the collection, by Wim Wenders, was contrived to the point of being silly — yet this was the very piece that introduced the audience to the idea of microfinance. And it’s kind of hard not to heed the call of developing world entrepreneurs speaking to you directly from the big screen.
8 should be required viewing. For everyone.
Andrew Currie 