Pangea Day

In 2006, filmmaker Jehane Noujaim wished for a day where people all over the world would unite through the power of film.

Pangea Day is a 4-hour program of 24 short films from storytellers around the world. Films were chosen based on their ability to inspire, transform and allow us to see the world through another person’s eyes.

This event happened early this morning, 2:00 am Philippine time. I tried to wake myself up at 2:00 am using my biological alarm clock but it rang two hours late. Anyway I tried watching the webcast but it looked like a trip-to-jerusalem parlor game that stops every five seconds or so. I thought the internet speed would be fast enough in the early morning to allow a live webcast of the event but I was wrong. The connection speed was slow even on that wee hours of the morning. I gave up after a few minutes and tried the TV. I read on the pangea day website that it would be on Star TV in Asia. Unfortunately, the only cable TV service in town was down. So I went back to sleep.

I first read about this event a couple of months ago while browsing the TED website. I signed-up to host a public viewing event in the college where I work but I later found out that it would be up at 2:00 am where most of us would be dozing off. When I later found out that they will have a satellite feed of the program, I contacted the organizers to ask if I can get the satellite coordinates for a possible broadcast in our local cable TV since I know the owners and I believe they will give time for it. Unfortunately, they answered that Current TV is the official cable TV broadcaster of the show and they can't allow other operators to show it. Current TV is not available in this small town of mine so its a lost. Anyway I decided to watch the webcast instead which, as I've told earlier, is a failure. The program is still online on the Pangea Day website. I still can't watch it. So off to plan B. The program selected the 24 short films shown via youtube, so the films are actually available there. All I need to do is check the titles at the pangea day website, search it on youtube and voila!

And here's a sampler, one of the winners, Moving Windmills, about William Kamkwamba (who has a blog) , a kid from Malawi who built, and still building, windmills based only on a picture in a book. The windmills power their lights, radio and TV and even pumps water for their farm.



I'll be posting more Pangea Day videos in the coming days.