Youth Venture

ธันวาคม 26, 2009 - 4:11pm — timchai

Launch of 5th Annual Film Your Issue Competition

Film Your Issue is a global youth initiative---in partnership with Apple, Youtube, Sony Pictures, Best Buy, the American Red Cross, Tom Brokaw, Nicholas Kristof, Liev Schreiber and others--engaging young adults 14-to-24 in solution-project ideas to front-burner issues, submitted digitally via three-minute videos and for the first time this year, music! Winners are presented to senior officials of the Obama administration, privately.

Our 2010 VIP Jury Leadership committee, headed by Distinguished Honorary Jurist Tom Brokaw, includes Deepak Chopra, Jack Black, Liev Schreiber, Yoko Ono, Nicholas Kristof and the heads of The Oprah Winfrey Network, NAACP, Apple, Youtube and Sony Pictures Entertainment. Our historic roster of past jurists includes President Barack Obama, George Clooney, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Walter Cronkite, Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper.

Winners will be presented to senior Obama officials, at a VIP reception in Washington, DC, and at an Awards Ceremony at Sony Pictures Studios co-hosted by Sony Pictures in Los Angeles; videos will also be featured/shown at flagship Apple stores, on iTunes, on the Youtube homepage, and in all Best Buy stores globally during summer 2010. Prizes also include a Film School student pass to the Sundance Film Festival, Macbooks and iPhones.

Jack Black is the inaugural VIP Music Jury for the new “Issue Song” youth competition. Young adults are invited to create 3-minute songs on issues that burn for them, demonstrating the transformative power of music to touch hearts and change minds. Winners will be platformed on iTunes, presented at the annual NAMM conference, and presented in flagship Apple stores. Proceeds from the CD compilation of emerging artists, anchored by celebrity musical artists, will benefit Gulf Coast recovery. VIP Music Jurists are invited to record versions of winning songs of their choice.

We have defined six front-burner issues for 2010: environment, education, healthcare, pathway from poverty, public service, human and equal rights issues.

The submission period is January through April 2010. Voting online and by VIP Jury is April/ May 2010. Winners are announced May/June 2010.

Last round, with MySpace and MTV as partners, Film Your Issue broke its previous record for submissions: 500 films from 46 states and 27 countries. Previously, with MSN Video/ MSNBC as a partner, the campaign bested the record set for video stream polling by MSNBC for the SuperBowl.

The 2008 winners were presented at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, the NAACP 2008 annual convention, on PBS Engage, LinkTV, AOL True Stories, broadcast to the 30 million audience of Starz and presented on MTV News. The Gates Foundation provided a scholarship, and internships were offered by USA TODAY, PBS and the United Nations.

Attached is a screenshot of the Open Letter from Distinguished Honorary Jurist Tom Brokaw.