Reportage

UN film festival: call for entries

23 janvier 2007

In celebration of the Millennium Development Goals, the Media Communications Association International, the United Nations Department of Public Information and the New School are calling for entries for the Third Annual United Nations Documentary Film Festival. The Festival, entitled ‘Stories from the Field’ will take place on Friday, April 20 through Sunday, April 22, 2007, and feature film screenings, panel discussions, and award presentations.

‘Stories from the Field’ was founded in 2005 as the United Nations entered its 60 th year. Its mission is to screen films that reflect the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, which pledge to:

  • Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
  • Achieve universal primary education
  • Promote gender equality and empower women
  • Reduce child mortality
  • Improve maternal health
  • Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
  • Ensure environmental sustainability
  • Develop a global partnership for development


Filmmakers are invited to submit works that spotlight some of the people and cultures in areas with a United Nations presence throughout the world and discover what these groups are doing to overcome challenges such as poverty, AIDS, hunger, disease, civil unrest, trafficking, and injustice; show how a particular United Nations programme or service is helping a developing community to develop a civil society, self-determination, and a better quality of life for its people; and / or provide a platform for United Nations workers, community leaders, and the people they serve to share their stories of adversity and triumph.

Finalists will be selected by a screening committee of United Nations officials, MCAI representatives, New School faculty, and Mount Sinai global health experts, based on the topical relevance, artistic merit, and production values of their work.

All filmmakers from or contracted by United Nations offices, funds, programmes, and agencies around the world are invited to submit entries for consideration by 31 January 2007. The selected films will be announced on March 12, 2007.

Panel discussions at the Festival will feature the filmmakers, and invited representatives from the United Nations, The New School, MCAI NY, and, for the first time, The Mount Sinai Hospital and School of Medicine , which will lend its expertise to those discussions that center on global health.

The competition is also open to filmmakers from the general public.

Find out more about the Film Festival and how to enter on the special Festival Web site, www.mcainy.org/unfilm or on www.un.org/millenniumgoals