IFP PARTNERS WITH UN FOR ENVISION | By Mary Anderson Casavant

This weekend the documentarian as activist was discussed at “Envision: Addressing Global Issues Through Documentaries,” an event presented by the IFP and UN and hosted by The New York Times at The Times Center. In her introductory remarks, IFP Executive Director Joanna Vicente pledged that the program, now in its second year, would continue to use the UN’s Millennium Development Goals as its focal point and praised the program for attempting to “envision a better world for all and achieving that through media.” It was a sentiment echoed by Kiyoa Akasaka, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, who professed himself a “die-hard” fan of documentaries and praised filmmakers for “deepening our understanding of complex issues.”

The morning got off to an impressive start with a keynote speech by the iconic actor, singer and activist, Harry Belafonte. The former UNICEF ambassador passionately exclaimed that there was no “greater cause than the welfare of the children of our planet,” and went on to praise the power of media to instigate change, asserting, “Most of the solutions are not really complicated. What is needed is the human will to commit ourselves to what is morally right.”

Belafonte praised Jennifer Arnold‘s A Small Act, the documentary screening after his speech, saying that it had “deeply moved” him. (For more on Arnold, check out our interview, here.) Picking up the film’s theme that even the smallest act can make the largest difference, Belafonte recounted how he, Eleanor Roosevelt and Jackie Robinson had once organized an airlift that helped place 143 Kenyan students in various American universities — an action that violated a treaty between Great Britain and America.

One of those students? Barack Obama, Senior. Belafonte marveled at how event the smallest charitable act can reshape the history of the world.

During the panel discussion “Education Obstacles & Solutions in Africa,” the power of documentary to change lives was driven home by the experiences of UN employee Chris Mburu, a man whose life story is featured in A Small Act. The recipient of a scholarship that sent … Read the rest