The Directors of the Peace On Earth Film Festival and the Board of Directors of Transcendence Global Media, NFP, are proud to announce a partnership with Chicago’s own Free Spirit Media, for the 2012 Peace On Earth Film Festival and Dialogue for Peace Outreach Program. Free Spirit Media partners with schools and organizations to provide education, access, and opportunity in media production to underserved urban youth…

For the first phase of the partnership, the POEFF chose the fearless and provocative FSM film, Sounds of Freedom, for the 2012 Dialogue for Peace (DFP) Outreach Program in schools. In Sounds of Freedom, students from FSM at North Lawndale College Prep, take the audience on a journey from deep in Chicago’s inner city to the Arab Spring in Egypt, delving into what freedom means to different people. In January 2012, POEFF Directors will pilot curriculum specifically designed to Sounds of Freedom in a Chicago Public School.

We believe that films on the themes of freedom, social justice, nonviolence and tolerance, created by high school students, can have an immeasurable impact on their peers. FSM’s peer-to-peer approach to filmmaking addresses some of the toughest topics, while exploring nonviolent and peaceful alternatives.

The POEFF is proud to partner with FSM in order to highlight their outstanding work with underserved urban youth, and to support our mutual use of the medium of film to teach, to enlighten, and to speak out, and most importantly, to serve the greater good.

Stay tuned for the POEFF’s announcement of the second phase of our partnership with Free Spirit Media in 2012!

Most young people have nothing to do with the violence that bleeds through our neighborhoods, yet the fascination with violence and gangster heroes saturates youth culture. But some of Chicago’s youth have met a different kind of hero, whose documentary film on life in Mozambique lifted them to a new level of awareness, inspiring core values of respect, compassion for others and a desire to make a difference. Now they have a chance to meet him in person.

Mozambican youth documentary filmmaker and AIDS orphan, Alcides Soares, at 16 years of age crafted a ‘grab your heart’ documentary taking us through the grimmest reality of daily survival, and Alcides’s search for his lost siblings. His film, Home Is Where You Find It, is part of a program that teaches compassion, tolerance, trust, and hope in education; as well as the possibility of a healthy and happy future.

Members of the Chicago media are invited to join Chicago Public School students and teachers at two life-changing screenings of Home Is Where You Find It. Now 21 years old, and leading a life far removed from his tragic youth, Alcides is in the city as part of the Dialogue for Peace Outreach Program. This is a unique opportunity for students to view the film, meet and dialogue with Alcides Soares, a different kind of hero.

Screenings in two Chicago Public Schools:

When: Monday, Nov. 21, 2011
Where: First Screening: 9:30-11 a.m., at Hendricks Community Academy Elementary (4316 S Princeton Ave, Chicago)
Second Screening: 12:45-2:15 p.m., Josephine Locke Elementary School (2828 N Oak Park Ave, Chicago).
The screenings are being presented by Dialogue for Peace (DFP), an outreach program of Chicago’s very own Peace on Earth Film Festival (www.peaceonearthfilmfestival.org), which is held annually each February at the Chicago Cultural Center. The DFP outreach to students in the Chicago Public Schools is an ongoing part of the festival, which makes its presence felt in the city year-round. “We use films to engage children in dialogue on nonviolent practices.” said film festival director Nick Angotti.

Brad Parker, National Board Certified Teacher, has said of the program: “Students really open up. That was the real power of the program. I feel that after the dialogue and discussion, the class became incredibly more teachable — because they understood each other so much more and they understood their common humanity.”

Home Is Where You Find It, which Alcides Soares, an AIDS orphan, made in 2006, with the help and encouragement of Law and Order SVU, Executive Director, Neal Baer, Chris Zalla (director) and other L&O, SVC cast members, is a 16-minute film about his efforts to reunite the siblings of his shattered family. It is also a tale of young people coping without their parents in deepest poverty. His message to Chicago students is never give up, have trust in yourself and hope in the world, life becomes better.

Take a few minutes and read Robert Koehler’s profound and inspiring story, BUILDING COMMUNITY, BUILDING PEACE (released October 12, 2011 – commonwonders.com.). It is somewhat difficult to read, as Bob reminds us of the horrors of gang violence and its tragic aftermath, using the senseless death of Fenger High School student, Derrion Albert. But as always with Bob and his stories, from dark despair he leads us to the light of solution. Bob’s story highlights Robert Spicer, the “culture and calm” coordinator at Fenger High School, and Spicer’s use of Restorative Justice practices to restore and build community.

If Restorative Justice and its practices aren’t a part of your life experience, you can also visit the website www.restorativejusticeinaction.org. There you can view clips of Robert Spicer and other Restorative Justice Practitioners and the amazing RJ work they are doing in Chicago. This website will inspire you to learn more, and perhaps even encourage you to bring RJ into your community, work, school, home…begining a restorative way of life.

And finally, take a look at the powerful short documentary, Concrete Steel & Paint, a film about crime, restoration and healing (Winner, Best Short Documentary 2011 Peace On Earth Film Festival), by filmmakers Cindy Bernstein and Tony Herzia (www.concretefilm.org). The film takes you into the center of the RJ process, slowly building to healing and restoration, as it is directly experienced by crime victims and offenders meeting inside prison walls.

I hope one or all three of the above motivates you to explore bringing Restorative Justice practices into your corner of the world. Sometimes simply learning about a successful and tested practice like RJ can move us to action for the greater good. Peace!

For More information on Restorative Justice Practices in Illinois: http://www.ibarji.org/

The Peace On Earth Film Festival will be back at the Chicago Cultural Center, Feb 23^rd through the 26^th, 2012. In the immediate, if you are looking for something extraordinary in film and festival presentation, with a lot of what the POEFF brings you, you won’t want to miss the 47^th Annual Chicago International Film Festival: October 6^th through the 20^th. The CIFF is one of the premier festivals in the world with 180 films, from 50 countries and over 45 films from first-time directors.

Here is but a few events – films, panels and Q&A/Interviews to watch for, functions we are planning on making: Continue reading →

I hope everyone in the vicinity of the Chicago area will join Master of Ceremony, Nick Angotti ( Exec. Director and Co-Founder), of the Peace On Earth Film Festival and the Chicago Build the Peace Committee, at the PEACE DAY CELEBRATION, at the R.J. Daley Center Plaza, on Friday, September 23, noon to 1:00 p.m. The Chicago Build the Peace Committee presents a Call to Peace, with world music, cultural performances, speakers and a ceremony including flags of the world.

This free annual celebration speaks to all races, cultures and beliefs, in the possibilities for all of us to live together in peace. Peace is possible, but it takes all of us doing our part in our own little corners of the world. One way those of us in the Chicago area can do our part is by simply showing up and supporting an event like this one. The collective presence of like-minded people is a powerful force for change.

If you need to light a fire under yourself to show up for peace on Friday, take a read of our friend Bob Koheler’s latest article: http://commonwonders.com/world/the-old-integrity/ Bob is an amazing writer who conisistently burns through the bs to the truth.

Read up and see you Friday!!

Three days after the 10 year anniversary of 9/11, I stood in my kitchen at 5:30 a.m., preparing my lunch for the day, when suddenly I was struck by profound feelings of sadness and fear. It had taken a few days, but the reality and reminders marking the 10th anniversary finally made their way through me. As the tears fell, there was a familiar feeling of helplessness about the world filtering through my thoughts.

The images and words of the week leading up to the anniversary, and in the days that followed, were suddenly very fresh and very disturbing, in the dark before the dawn inside of my kitchen. I thought, “What can any of us do?” At that moment, as my mind replayed images of family members seeing the Twin Towers Memorial for the first time; I heard: “I let go of fear. I am peace.” These two statements repeated inside my head again and again, almost as though they were being whispered to me…until I heard myself saying them out loud – very quietly at first, and then with a steady almost chanting cadence.

I let go of fear. I am peace. Continue reading →