20,000 Dialogues

20,000 Dialogues is a nationwide campaign to bring people of different faiths together using films about Muslims to stimulate discussion and promote understanding. It brings the concept of interfaith dialogue into the hands of ordinary people who want to make a positive difference. 20,000 Dialogues is a Unity Production Foundation (UPF) project in cooperation with Connecting Cultures, LLC.

Resource Link: http://www.20000dialogues.org

Active Voice

Active Voice is a nonprofit, fee-based service provider whose work is an outgrowth of promising practices developed by the Television Race Initiative (TRI). Active Voice creates campaigns based on powerful issue-driven films. AV campaigns encourage individuals and community groups to probe, discuss and take action on timely and relevant social justice issues. In collaboration with a wide range of partners, Active Voice creates companion materials and trains facilitators in how to use the films as catalysts for civic engagement, volunteerism and coalition building.

Resource Link: http://www.activevoice.net

American Documentary, Inc.

American Documentary, Inc. builds new audiences, educates viewers, and fosters sustained public discourse and activity around the contemporary social issues raised by P.O.V. (Point of View) documentary programming. Their film Girls Like Us, for example, used broadcast media to encourage adults to become aware of the issues affecting the young women in their lives.

Resource Link: http://amdoc.org

Encounter Point

Just Vision, 2006.

Encounter Point is an 85-minute feature documentary film that follows a former Israeli settler, a Palestinian ex-prisoner, a bereaved Israeli mother and a wounded Palestinian bereaved brother who risk their lives and public standing to promote a nonviolent end to the conflict. Their journeys lead them to the unlikeliest places to confront hatred within their communities. The film explores what drives them and thousands of other like-minded civilians to overcome anger and grief to work for grassroots solutions. It is a film about the everyday leaders in our midst.

Resource Link: http://www.encounterpoint.com

Healing the Heart of America

Hope in the Cities/MRA Inc., 1993.

In June 1993, citizens of Richmond, Virginia - the former capital of the Confederacy - initiated "Healing the Heart of America: an honest conversation on race, reconciliation and responsibility." Joined by people from 50 cities around the US and the world, they gave recognition to unacknowledged sites and events in the 370-year history of black-white relations. This award-winning documentary is the story of their walk through Richmond history. The film provides clear direction and inspiration for those working to unite their community through dialogue.

Resource Link: http://www.iofc.org

Invisible Children: Rough Cut

The United Nations estimates that 300,000 children are currently fighting in conflicts around the world and hundreds of thousands more are members of armed forces - either being trained for combat or used as laborers. Physical, sexual and emotional abuse is commonplace. Most of these children were forcible conscripted or abducted by fighting forces to become instruments of war, to kill or be killed. Without exception, the experience has devastating effects on their physical, psychological and intellectual development. What started out as a film-making adventure in Africa transformed into much more when three young Americans' travels took a divine turn, and they found themselves stranded in Northern Uganda. They discovered children being kidnapped nightly from their homes and subsequently forced to become fight as child soldiers. This film is dedicated to exposing this tragic, and amazingly untold story.

Resource Link: http://www.invisiblechildren.com

Roundtable, Inc.

Roundtable, Inc. is a production company that focuses on building social capital. Roundtable produces public engagement projects in several media (television, radio, web, print, books) and partners with other production companies to help increase the impact of their work. They form regional coalitions for each project and provide online training for facilitators.

Resource Link: http://www.roundtablemedia.com

Skin Deep: College Students Confront Racism

Frances Reid (Producer/Director). San Francisco, CA: Resolution/California Newsreel, 1995.

This 53-minute documentary chronicles the journey of a multi-racial group of college students as they examine their own and confront each other's attitudes about race and ethnicity. This video vividly illustrates students of color and white students at different stages of racial identity and demonstrates the possibility of growth as a result of dialogue.

Resource Link: http://www.newsreel.org/nav/title.asp?tc=CN0085&s=

The Letter: An American Town and the 'Somali Invasion'

Directed by Ziad H. Hamzeh. Produced by Ziad H. Hamzeh, Bert Brown, and Marc Sandler, 2003.

This 76-minute documentary film tells the story of 1,100 Somalian immigrants who relocated to Lewiston, Maine. At first the immigrants were welcomed, but soon fear and distrust broke out amongst the townspeople. Tensions erupted after the mayor sent a letter to the immigrants requesting that they tell their friends and family not to move into the town. The mayor claimed that the newcomers were straining town services. The conflict escalated into competing ?“hate?” and ?“peace?” rallies held simultaneously and separated by only a few miles. "The Letter" could help dialogue programs raise awareness in their communities about how racism and immigration intersect. The film could also help planners decide which of these issues to address in their community.

Resource Link: http://www.hamzehmystiquefilms.com/theletter/

Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North

Ebb Pod Productions, 2007.

Traces of the Trade is a feature documentary in which Producer/Director Katrina Browne tells the story of her New England ancestors, the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history. Cameras follow as Browne and nine fellow descendants undertake a journey of discovery to Rhode Island, Ghana, and Cuba. Retracing the steps of the notorious Triangle Trade, we uncover a family's, a region's, and a nation's hidden past. Simultaneously, viewers will follow descendants of the DeWolf family as they grapple with the contemporary legacy of slavery, not only for black Americans, but for themselves as white Americans. The film is intended as a catalyst for dialogue and education through screenings in communities and classrooms, and discussion guides and other materials are being developed.

Resource Link: http://www.tracesofthetrade.org

VOICES OF DISSENT: Activism & American Democracy

Karil Daniels, Point of View Productions, 2004.

An award-winning documentary that focuses on some of the brave citizens who are defending our American heritage of First Amendment rights and civil liberties against government attempts to repress democracy and our freedom to dissent. It includes many of the surprising and creative ways Americans have found to express their views in dissent against the Bush administration's policy of war in Iraq. Features Martin Sheen, Woody Harrelson, Al Franken, Medea Benjamin, Arianna Huffington, Jim Hightower, Daniel Ellsberg, Michael Franti, Will Durst, Joan Blades, Paul Krugman and many more. This documentary has received nine film festival awards.

Resource Link: http://www.voicesofdissent.us