Pangea Day

Last night I was honoured to be part of the the global audience that watched the live 4-hour broadcast in 7 languages, via television, the Internet and mobile phones, of Pangea Day from Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro. What the heck is Pangea Day, you may ask? Well, it is an event designed to bring the world together through the medium of film, allowing us to see this world which is divided by ethnic, racial and religious differences, political and territorial borders, conflict and intolerance, through someone else's eyes. It was a day designed for people to tell their stories through the medium of short films, music and inspiring speeches.

Pangea Day was the brainchild of Jehane Noujaim, a documentary filmmaker, who after winning the TED prize in 2006, was granted a wish to change the world. Pangea Day is result of this wish and the culmination of almost two years of dedicated work to put it all together. The short films that were broadcast last night during the 4-hour broadcast, were winning submissions from around the world. South Africa featured prominently as did the the rest of Africa which is currently the source of widespread distress and despair.

The short films featured were poignant, sometimes funny, but truly inspirational. Personally, I am not given to displays of emotion, but there were times last night that almost brought tears to my eyes, and other times that touched on raw anger at some of the scenes I witnessed.

To really appreciate the significance of this event, which I hope will be held at least annually, you have to view some of the live broadcast and the short films that were aired. Over the next week or so, I will post some of the short films that really inspired me, on this blog. To start, here is the opening sequence from last night...