MEDIA ADVOCACY: LEFT, RIGHT & CENTER
Beginning May 19, MediaRights’ fourth annual Media That Matters Film Festival presents a unique lineup of high-impact shorts online, on DVD, and at events throughout the U.S. This year the festival features a special program called the Just Media Project honoring the work of two media democracy pioneers with awards, profiles, films and a resource guide.
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) has launched a national competition to create the best 30-second TV commercial advocating same-sex marriage equality. GLAAD plans to broadcast the winning commercial across the country. The submission deadline for the “I Do” contest is June 1, 2004.
The winner, to be announced on July 12, will be chosen by a jury that includes writer Kevin Williamson (Scream), comedian Margaret Cho (Notorious C.H.O.), producer Craig Zadan (Chicago), director Jane Anderson (If These Walls Could Talk 2), actor Judith Light (Who’s the Boss?), director Paris Barclay (The West Wing), writer/actor Heather Juergensen (Kissing Jessica Stein), and producer Bruce Cohen (American Beauty), among others.
MediaLiquid, a New Haven-based corporation run by recent Yale graduates committed to helping companies find cost-effective ways to communicate their messages to TV, film and online audiences, has partnered with The America Prepared Campaign, Inc., to launch a nationwide contest for the best short films that “support the work already begun by the Department of Homeland Security’s ‘Ready Campaign’ to give Americans useful recommendations for preparing their homes and families for another terrorist attack.”
Miramax co-chairman Harvey Weinstein, who sits on the board of The America Prepared Campaign, an organization led by entrepreneur and journalist Steven Brill, will determine the winning entries. The contest begins today and the deadline for submissions is August 4, 2004. The winning films, which will share $10,000 in prize money, will be announced in September, after which they will be broadcast on the America Prepared Web site. Details can found at MediaLiquid.com.
