Choose your favorite video from the five finalists below then blog it, post it to websites, send that link to everyone you know!
The creator of the video receiving the most views by World Food Day (5pm GMT October 16, 2008) will be sent with a friend to make a video at a WFP relief operation in Asia, Africa or Latin America.
The Top 5
Both professional and amateur producers answered the call for video entries, sometimes with searing, bold imagery and sounds, at other times with subtle, wry and even haunting treatments of the dire topic. Here ? in no specific order -- are the five finalist videos.
1. "Just Because You Can't See It"
by American University-Rome students Shawn Cohen, Sandra Goffin, and Rosi Mosca-Herrera.
A blue-ribbon panel of leaders in film, web and humanitarian aid have selected the 5 finalist videos.
Steve Grove, chief of News and Politics at YouTube, directs all news, politics, and non-profit programming for the operation. As the director of the You Choose '08 platform, Grove works with presidential campaigns, media partners, and YouTube's vast user community to bring the 2008 presidential election to YouTube users worldwide, while also expanding YouTube's political programming down the ballot to local campaigns and international elections.
Cathy Schulman is President of Mandalay Pictures. In 2004, she won an Oscar for producing ?Crash? with Matt Dillon, Sandra Bullock, Tony Danza and Don Cheadle, was hailed as a work of courage and candor in its study of racial and ethical divides in Los Angeles.
Nancy Roman became Director of Communications and Public Policy Strategy of the UN World Food Programme in August 2007. She supervises a global staff covering operations in 80 countries. Prior to joining WFP, Ms. Roman?s 18-year career in Washington, DC included her work as Vice President and Director of the Washington Program of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Bill Smee joined Slate as Executive Producer after 20 years in television news and documentary, having garnered multiple Emmys as a producer and network executive at CNN and the Discovery Times Channel. He is a graduate of Yale University and lives in Washington, DC.
Edward Zwick?s profile as a director of substantive, rich film stories dates back to major attention in the late 1980s for ?Glory? with Denzel Washington and Matthew Broderick, a film about the first all-black volunteer regiment in the U.S. Civil War. The American Academy has also honored his work as a producer, with a Best Picture nomination for ?Traffic? (2000) and an Best Picture win for ?Shakespeare in Love? (1989). His direction of the 2006 ?Blood Diamond? with Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou and Jennifer Connolly drew five Oscar nominations.
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About HungerBytes
Last November, the United Nations World Food Programme called on students, would-be filmmakers and other interested folks in the web universe to focus their creativity on raising awareness about hunger through a unique, international competition : Hungerbytes. Since the contest launch, some 70 videos have been entered from around the World and are making the on-line community buzz about global hunger. This page presents the five finalists selected by our jury.
The Prize
The winner of the first HungerBytes contest will be able to visit, with a friend, a WFP project in Africa, Asia or Latin America. To get an idea of what we do, take a look at our Youtube channel.
