After acknowledging the members of the AC editorial committee, Paul Allard proceeded to the award presentation for the best French and Spanish films in the Alternative Channel competition. The films were judged on their "persuasion, awareness raising, values, message, rigor and originality"; in short, on their promotion of AC's call to understand, and not just believe.
Paul's persuasive powers fell short of inspiring Guillaume to rousing song, so Paul nearly broke into a "Singin' in the Rain" inspired tapdance himself as Rigoberta Menchu broke the seal on the envelope. Fundación Adsis's short video of that name was judged the overall winning Spanish film.
AC Forum Video Contest Winner 2008 (Spanish):
Matthew Eisigner's film À la découverte de l'homo took the award for best French film.
Mr Allard then effusively thanked the various parties whose efforts allowed the day to be a great success. He was careful to particularly note the folks from ACT Responsible for their "international contribution to responsible advertising".
Plans have shifted as concerns the words from Rigoberta Menchu: my colleague is preparing a French translation of the press conference. When this is done I will then translate exceprts into English. At the moment she is working furiously but do look for this transcript in the coming days.
NEXT FORUM: North America, November 2008.
From Barcelona I send my thanks to all of you who tuned in, and I bid you good night.
AC FORUM 2008: Responsibility: Media and Companies
17.11 — We are preparing to kick off the final panel of the day here in the main hall. We are pleased to welcome Daniel Wermus of Média 21, Bernard Robert-Charrue of Dev.tv, Vicente Domingo of Humania TV and Xosé Ramil of Fundación Chandra/Ekoos.
I will also be making a run down the stairs over this hour to check in on the Web 2.0 workshop led by my colleague Lise Guennal, who maintains the French version of AC Blog, and Pablo Salzman of rethos.com.
14.05 — The other members of the press have converged on the lunch room where I will soon follow, but I wanted to take advantage of their absence (and the easing of the stress on the bandwidth) to send off a quick dispatch here.
The subtitle of this seminar ("The Spot") which has just closed derives from this name popularly given to the video spots which the participating organizations produce in their efforts to raise awareness.
In the course of the discussion, the participants showed how their messages, when produced and distributed properly, can play an essential role. It is appropriate that this follows my comments on Mr Lamb's presentation. I asked Mr Lamb what we can do to overcome social-political inertia and society's inherent resistance to changes which may be needed to address global issues. Mr Lamb responded that the only way to address the inertia is with a stubborn persistence. It should not be the objective to shock and awe in an alarmist fashion (though at times these tactics may be effectively employed), but rather to present the message everyday anew.
Mr Lamb said it best: for emphasis and inculcation it is best to say what you are going to say, say it, and then say what you've said. If the "spots" adopt this approach, we may begin to realize change in oncoming generations.
We will be back at 15.00 to catch Rigobertu Menchu's speech. It is not to be missed.
AC FORUM 2008: Social Networks, ICT and Worldwide Mobilization
11.24 AM — A lively coffee break on the Casa's terrasse has been truncated by a hearty whistle and I can hear the translation microphones crackling to life again in the hall. Sit tight; here we go.
Hit the link below. I am now on the floor of the main hall before the panelists.
The first featured debate is now being opened and I have a slight alteration of the program to announce. Unfortunately Vicente Verdú has suddenly been unable to join us and Margarita Riviere has taken the stage in his stead. She is a journalist who, like Mr Verdú , has been a regular contributor to the influential Spanish daily EL PAÍS.
The link to this interview will familiarize you briefly with her work (transcript is in Spanish).
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