Dionne Warwick, Legendary Saxophonist Dave Koz and Other Special Guests Gather for a Fun Night of Entertainment for the Whole Family, Awards Presentations and Fundraising for Programs that Serve Seriously Ill Children and Their Families

LOS ANGELES, USA – Starlight Children’s Foundation (www.starlight.org) will present Noel R. Wallace, of Colgate-Palmolive Company, with the 2010 Jacki Carlish Humanitarian Award and Larry Flax and Rick Rosenfield, of California Pizza Kitchen, with the 2010 Heart of Gold Award at A Stellar Night, Starlight’s annual gala.

With a performance by Dionne Warwick, hosted by Starlight’s Global Ambassador and jazz legend Dave Koz and sponsored by California Pizza Kitchen, Nintendo of America, Disney, Debbie and Glen Bickerstaff, and Insomniac Games, A Stellar Night will bring the incredible stories of its children, families and programs into the spotlight, and honor entertainment industry leaders and humanitarians whose hope and compassion have helped combat the pair, fear and isolation experienced by seriously ill children and their families.

As always, A Stellar Night encourages supporters to invite their children and grandchildren to hang out and have fun with the gala’s young celebrity guests and learn early lessons of philanthropy at its ever-popular (and larger) Kid’s Lounge.

Co-Chairs of Starlight’s annual gala include Carol Savoie, David Getson and John Rosenberg.

WHERE: Century Plaza Hyatt Hotel
2025 Avenue Of The Stars
Los Angeles, CA 90067

WHEN: Friday, March 19, 2010

Program begins at 6:00 p.m.

COST: $500.00 adults, $100.00 children (All proceeds benefit Starlight.)

For more information or to purchase tickets or sponsorships, please visit www.starlight.org/events, or contact Joan Ford at (323) 556-3323 or joan.ford@starlight.org.

ABOUT STARLIGHT CHILDREN’S FOUNDATION™

When a child or teenager has a serious medical condition, everyone in the family is affected. For 25 years, Starlight Children’s Foundation has been dedicated to helping seriously ill children and their families cope with their pain, fear and isolation through entertainment, education and family activities. Starlight’s programs have been proven to distract children from their pain, help them better understand and manage their illnesses, and connect families facing similar challenges so that no one feels alone. Through a network of chapters and offices, Starlight provides ongoing support to children, parents and siblings in all U.S. states and Canadian provinces with an array of outpatient, hospital-based and Web offerings. Programs are also delivered internationally through affiliates in Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom. To learn more visit www.starlight.org.

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MIAMI, USA – The home-building nonprofit organization The Fuller Center for Housing is traveling to Haiti with a group of aid workers gathered by actor Sean Penn.

Penn gathered the team to fly out to Haiti and is on the ground helping out in the effort. As aid agencies face bottlenecks preventing the delivery of aid, other smaller charities are sending their own supplies via the Dominican Republic.

“I was given Sean Penn’s name and made the necessary connections to be on that plane with some Fuller Center people,” Fuller Center country partner director Michael Bonderer said on the phone in El Salvador.

Despite an unprecedented international response to the disaster, a large majority of Haitians have yet to see any aid as the logistical nightmare of bringing in supplies has complicated the relief effort.

Although the Fuller Center will not be providing direct relief for Haitians, the charity will rebuild homes on a long-term disaster recovery mission.

To volunteer log on to : http://www.fullercenter.org

UPDATED 22.28 GMT +

MONTE CARLO, Monaco – Marco Orsini is an award winning filmmaker and activist creating documentary and short films such as  ‘Un Dia en la Vida’, which premiered at the Sundance film festival.

Marco teamed up with is fellow Monegasques to create the charitable organization, IEFTA; the Global Film Expression initiative in Ethiopia that focuses on filmmaker training and development. Marco’s highly successful and recent documentary ‘The Reluctant Traveler’ was recently screened in Monaco to raise money for the IEFTA. The documentary takes us deep into Ethiopia, which has rich cultural heritage.

Film Industry Network brings you an insight into the life of an independent filmmaker and activist who strives to help others improve their art.

How did this documentary come to be?

I was supposed to be in Sundance that weekend for the film festival, but my partner Mark had a infatuation with Religious Ethiopian artifacts since it is one of the oldest Christian countries in the world, dating back to 400 AD. He had put a trip together and asked me to put a crew to document our trip. I reluctantly said yes (hence the title).

The morning we were leaving, Mark gets sick and decides not to go. Instead, I was sent off without him and a film crew, for a month in one of the most inhospitable places in the world… with his eclectic group of friends.

What was supposed to be someone else’s adventure became mine. Ethiopia opened up to me, showing me its natural resources, its beautiful people and incredible culture. I left not wanting to leave. I went, not wanting to go. How ironic, don’t you think?

When I returned to edit the film, I had over 100 hours of footage. The first pass was so boring; my friends were falling asleep watching it. One of my good friends who is also an excellent film director pulled me aside and was brutally blunt with what I needed to do with it. He told me to stop trying to be someone I’m not. In other words, be yourself.

So the new version of the film is just that; me being myself and the film ending up being a docu-comedy!

It won best film at its premiere in the states and was picked up for distribution at MIPCPM this past October. We are hoping to create a series with it.

What have you learned from this extraordinary experience?

I learned about other people’s spirituality again. I felt that I had been dead for sometime when it came to my spiritual side. In Ethiopia, people are alive with a spirit. Not just religion but of an ancient spirit that you can see in the peoples faces. Their belief is real. It’s not to look good or to follow rules but it’s what they truly believe. It’s hard to explain. Something you have to see for yourself.

I also learned so much about a country that was border locked for 1000 years to outsiders. This country is fascinating. All should go and see the churches of Lalibela hand carved into the rocks or the Danikil depression which has more active volcanoes then anywhere else on the African continent. The people, the tribes, the food. It made me go back!

How does the IEFTA help emerging talent in poor nations such as Ethiopia?

It has been a three-step process:

1:  we created an organization within Ethiopia run by Ethiopian filmmakers. Since the end of the civil war, there was a break down of communication between the old filmmakers who came from shooting on film, to the new filmmakers who were completely digital. The two sides weren’t talking. We basically went in and held a three-day conference in Addis Ababa also sponsored by UNESCO, the US and Indian Embassies and the University of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. We told them in order to build a film market within their country, they would have to start talking to one another and they would have to run it themselves. So an organization was created called the Ethiopian Film Initiative. It is a committee of Ethiopian filmmakers running the programs and educational development for themselves with some supervision from outside.

2: We then started to create programs within Addis Ababa offering basic training on how to shoot, write and produce a film. We continue with these classes to date since the cost is between 2,000 to 5,000 Euros. So far we have managed to hold 4 per year or one per quarter since 2007. Several short films have been produced since then and we hope more will be made by Ethiopians filmmakers.

3: Our third mandate is to get these films viewed by the Ethiopians as well as abroad. We believe film can be a profitable business for Ethiopia. If you look at how successful Nigeria and South Africa have been with their film markets, you can understand how the same potential can be reached in this country. We are hoping to have some of these films screened at Cannes this year.

In terms of development, what are the future steps you want to take to advance IEFTA’s cause?

We want to continue to develop Ethiopia’s film market to a point that it is self sufficient and independent from our needs. We hope this happens within the next two years. We are also hoping to move this project to another country and hopefully have the same success we had in Ethiopia. We are currently scouting some countries.

Can you tell us about your future film projects and plans for this year’s Cannes Film Festival?

I am currently working on two separate scripts, both narratives. My real passion is writing and it seems to flow quite easily. One has been optioned and the other is way off!

For Cannes this year, I plan on focusing on the filmmakers from Ethiopia. We are hoping to rally filmmakers from around the world to come and help support their filmmaking process.

To find out more about Marco’s recent documentary ‘The Reluctant Traveler’ please visit : http://www.thereluctanttraveler.com

His charity IEFTA : http://www.iefta.org/html/index.htm

Indepedent Film Trust

LONDON – Newly formed, the Independent Film Trust is a charity that supports the British Independent Film Awards and the Raindance Film Festival in their work fostering, promoting and celebrating independent filmmaking.

Created by Raindance Founder Elliot Grove, support has steadily grown for this important initiative with endorsements from British film icons such as Mike Leigh, Tim Roth, and David Suchet to name a few. The charity will fund film courses for disadvantaged young people with the aim of developing self-confidence, creativity, communication and digital media skills and encouraging participation in further or higher education.

Film Industry Network interviewed commercial director Marcia Degia to find out more about the initiatives of the charity.

In conversation with Marcia Degia

How did this charity come about?

We recognised that young people in our target group often lack self-confidence and have little interest in continuing their education after they have completed the statutory number of years. According to the government agency Aimhigher, roughly 5-10% of each year group in schools and colleges have the ability to progress to higher education, but are unlikely to do so because they are from disadvantaged backgrounds without any family history of participation in higher education.

The IFT ran a pilot for Film School In A Box (FSIB) in December 2008 in partnership with Raindance and Royal Holloway college in Egham. The three-day pilot, involved children, aged 14-16, drawn from the local Magna Carta School and Sandhurst School. They were introduced to screenwriting, directing and editing and then produced a short film. They also learnt about how to marketing films.

The pilot was run on the back of Raindance filmmaking events in selected London schools through its Raindance Kids initiative, in 2002. For instance, it teamed up with Lewisham Education Business Partnership to provide Forest Hill Boys School with a one-week workshop, which allowed 21 students the opportunity to gain first-hand experience of the filmmaking process. The students, responsible for the filming and editing, decided to highlight issues faced by refugee communities. The final films were shown at the Ritzy Cinema in Brixton.

The pilot produced a very positive reaction from most of the young people involved. Of the 17 who took part, 12 said that it had significantly increased their interest in Media Arts as a subject, and one said that as a result of the experience they were for the first time seriously considering going to university.

What kind of programmes will you be providing?

We fund FSIB, run by professional film-makers from Raindance, using lightweight equipment that can be packed into a portable box and taken to schools in a designated area as and when required. This would enable the group to pass through all of the basic stages of film-making – writing, producing, directing, cinematography, editing and marketing.

The partnership with Raindance not only provides a link to industry practitioners – unlike other similar training initiatives. It can also provide a distribution outlet for the films that are made – through
Raindance.tv, the Raindance Film Festival or specially-arranged screenings.

Any important events coming up for fund raising?

We have a number of exciting projects scheduled throughout 2010 that will be hosted by industry heavyweights.

What else does IFT offer?

We recognise that it is hard for the average independent filmmaker to get their foot on the ladder. By
joining our Independent Film Trust Facebook group, members can look forward to fantastic opportunities. Recent competitions included ‘Win An Internship with Nick Broomfield’, ‘Two Tickets to a Film Premiere’ and numerous Raindance courses. You do not have to donate to join the group, just show your support of indie film!

How can people donate?

For more information, visit our website at http://www.independentfilmtrust.org/?q=node/15 or email Marcia Degia at marcia@independentfilmtrust.org

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