The Peace On Earth Film Festival’s Dialogue for Peace Outreach Program sends warmest thanks to Josephine Locke Elementary School, Principal, Mr. Ortega, Vice Principal, Ms. O’Brien, and International Baccalaureate (IB) Program Director, Mr. Parker, teachers and student staff members for a wonderful night of POEFF films and dialogue.

Kudos especially to Mr. Parker, for his immeasurable efforts to draw an audience that reached close to 200 students, parents and community members! Featured films, Out of the Rubble (ongoing ravages of Haiti earthquake), Ronan’s Escape (bullying), and Kindness Thought Bubble (treating each other with kindness, humanity & respect), generated heartfelt, thoughtful and inspiring dialogue – especially from the Locke students and their friends.

In keeping with the night’s theme of community and service, Locke teachers and staff made popcorn to raise funds for Haiti, and Mr. Parker gave a talk and presentation of his stirring personal experiences of volunteering in Haiti, just months following the quake. The students’ expressed appreciation for their lives, for what they have been given, and took up the challenge to do what they can to help others, starting in their own backyard.
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POEFF Announces 2013 Submissions

It is a pleasure to share with you that the Peace On Earth Film Festival (POEFF) begins accepting submissions for the 2013 festival beginning July 1 through October 31, 2012. The 2013 POEFF will be held from Thursday, March 7 through Sunday, March 10, 2013, in the historic Chicago Cultural Center’s Claudia Cassidy Theater.

Interested filmmakers should refer to our Filmmakers Page or Homepage for Guidelines for Submissions.

If you haven’t done so, I invite you to take a look at the outstanding films that were 2012 Official Selections. This was a landmark festival for us. 2012 marked the first year of an expanded four day festival, which also included Jerome McDonnell (host of WBEZ’s Worldview) as MC of Opening Night, two Student Voices for Peace Showcases, Q & A’s with all attending filmmakers whose films were Official Selections; and our first foray into live streaming – following the short documentary, #whilewewatch (2012 Special Selection), Tim Pool, one of Time Magazine’s Persons of the Year – Media Messenger of Zuccotti Park, and featured in #whilewewatch, spoke and took questions from the audience in the theater and via the internet, while being live streamed around the world.

2012 also included a compelling eight member Peacemakers panel, which included professionals and activists in the areas of juvenile justice, gun violence, the Occupy Movement and Arab-Israeli relations. One of the featured Peacemakers was Vince Emanuele, a veteran of the Iraq War and featured in On the Bridge, (Winner, 2012 Best Feature Documentary).

Highlights Work of IVAW

Eloquent and inspiring on screen and in-person, Vince and his colleagues from the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) were a powerful and enlightening presence throughout the festival.

We do our best as a festival to stay in touch with filmmakers and peacemakers as they continue their tireless work to create change toward peace, tolerance, communication and compassion. That is why we are honored to be able to share with you some highlights of the work being done by the IVAW since the festival screening of On the Bridge.

EXCERPTED FROM THE IRAQ VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR (IVAW) NEWSLETTER:

Chicago veterans have been complaining for a long time about the quality of care at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center. Here are just some of the problems there:

•   Staff receives inadequate training in Military Sexual Trauma, Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, and Traumatic Brain Injury. (They basically watch a webinar. That’s it.)
•   In-patient robe attire reveals too much of the body, making women veteran patients who have experienced past sexual violence feel exposed and vulnerable.
•   Many staff are not versed in the issues facing the current generation of veterans.

Teaming up with the Nurses’ Union

Through our organizing with various groups leading up to the NATO protests, we met representatives from National Nurses United (NNU). We learned that their members work at the VA, and they had concerns too. Safe staffing ratios at the VA were not being met, making the it an unsafe workplace for staff as well as for veteran patients. Together, we announced we would hold an informational picket outside the VA to let the public and patients know about our joint concerns. When the VA heard of our planned picket, they immediately asked for a meeting. They knew that veterans picketing in front of the VA would be bad publicity. Since then, we’ve had two meetings where they agreed to pursue considerable changes, based on joint recommendations of IVAW and NNU.

These changes include:

•   Increasing staffing levels for nurses.
•   Taking other services out of the women’s clinic, so that it is solely a  women’s space. (They’ve already done this.)
•   Hiring two new patient advocates to increase effective feedback of veteran patients.
•   Investigating into the unethical psychiatrist at the women’s clinic.
•   Ordering new robes for female vets (larger and less revealing).
•   Reviewing staff training and other policies to address our concerns.

The VA Director also agreed to meet with representatives of IVAW and NNU on a monthly basis until these issues are resolved. We have to keep the pressure on him to make sure he implements all the changes agreed to on paper. Our work at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center in Chicago started off as a trial run of taking our Operation Recovery campaign from active duty military bases to the VA medical system. We’ve had great results so far, and now we have a model to use in other cities around the country. (end-piece excerpted from IVAW newsletter)

We look forward to a 2013 festival filled once again with courageous and compelling films that serve to change the world – one film, one movement, one purpose – one heart at a time.

Peace, Milissa Pacelli

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 →