Note to Correspondents

Third Annual Envision Forum Focuses Lens on Poverty, Hunger

 

UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Harry Belafonte, World Food Programme

Goodwill Ambassador George McGovern to Speak during Two-Day Event

The third annual forum, “Envision:  Addressing Global Issues through Documentaries”, which opens this Friday in New York with a focus on poverty and hunger, will feature three distinctive documentaries, alongside addresses from United Nations Goodwill Ambassadors Harry Belafonte and George McGovern.

“Envision” is a forum jointly produced by the United Nations Department of Public Information and the Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP).  This year’s event will take place on 8-9 April at The TimesCenter in New York City.

Combining film presentations with live-audience discussions on pressing global issues related to the Millennium Development Goals, Envision brings the international filmmaking community, entrepreneurs, activists, journalists, public policymakers and non-governmental organizations together with United Nations experts.

The opening night programme will include a special screening of The Sound of Mumbai:  A Musical by emerging film documentary talent Sarah McCarthy.  In this feature, a presentation of HBO Documentary Films, a group of children living in a Mumbai slum get a chance to experience a different world as they perform The Sound of Music with a classical orchestra, fostering hopes that it could change their lives.

UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Harry Belafonte, who is a member of the Envision Advisory Board, will speak at the opening night event.

The Saturday morning programme will open with a presentation by Hugh Evans, Director of the Global Poverty Project, in which he will articulate the facts of extreme poverty and demonstrate that by making simple changes, everyone can be part of the solution.

An advance sneak preview screening of Phil Grabsky’s film, The Boy Mir:  Ten Years in Afghanistan, will also be featured that morning.  The film charts the journey of the charismatic Mir from a childish 8 to a fully grown 18-year-old, a passage into early adulthood that mirrors the current and vitally important story of Afghanistan.  After the film, Mr. Grabsky, who first introduced Mir to audiences in 2003 with his award-winning, The Boy Who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan, will participate in a panel, “On the Front Lines:  Balancing art and issues in documentary storytelling”, moderated by Patricia Finneran of the Sundance Institute Documentary Program.

The afternoon programme will open with an address by George McGovern, Goodwill Ambassador for the World Food Programme (WFP).  A former United States Senator, Mr. McGovern was the first Director of the USAID Food for Peace Programme and was instrumental in the formation of WFP in 1963.

The second panel of the day, “Breaking Point:  Food Security and Countries in Crisis”, will be moderated by award-winning CNN Anchor Jim Clancy.

Also being screened on Saturday, Lucy Walker’s 2011 Academy-Award® nominated Waste Land, follows artist Vik Muniz, who journeys from his home in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world’s largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.  Muniz photographs an eclectic band of catadores — “pickers” of recyclable materials.  They collaborate with him to recreate photographic images of themselves out of garbage, revealing both their dignity and despair as they begin to re-imagine their lives.

A final panel will focus on “The Role of Women in Alleviating Poverty and Hunger”, moderated by Donald Lee, Chief, Social Perspective on Development Branch, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, with the participation of Rebeca Grynspan, Under-Secretary-General and Associate Administrator, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

“I am very pleased that the Envision forum is returning in 2011.  There cannot be a better time to bring together documentary filmmakers and humanitarian activists to discuss the critical themes of poverty and hunger,” said Kiyo Akasaka, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information.

“As the MDG [Millennium Development Goals] target date of 2015 draws near, we must redouble our efforts to bring the crisis facing so much of the world’s population into the public eye.  Documentarians, who present complex issues to filmgoers in ways that engage the heart and the mind alike, are crucial allies in that effort,” he added

Joana Vicente, IFP Executive Director, said:  “As we launch into our third year of the Envision programme, I can’t help but be struck by the dramatic changes that have occurred recently.  This year’s theme of poverty and hunger are both concerns of a long-term nature but have particular immediacy.  The world has just experienced a natural disaster that has lead to an example of tremendous need.  We are so pleased to be partnered with the United Nations in offering a platform for discussion and potential change.”

Complete programme and ticket information are available at http://www.envisionfilm.org.

For media accreditation, please contact freida.orange@pmkbnc.com or nina.baron@pmkbnc.com.

For more information, please contact Joanna Piucci, tel.:  +1 212 963 7346, e‑mail:  piucci@un.org; or Carlos Islam, tel.:  +1 212 963 2985, e‑mail:  islamc@un.org.

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For information media • not an official record