Pangea Day was a remarkable event in many ways. A live demonstration that it is possible to use Internet technology to bring together, in a participatory manner, millions of people from all over the world, using the power of film, and creativity.
In the spirit of the event, I would like to share with you, my top three picks.
#1. Papiroflexia. An animation feat. If movies could be poems, they would look like this:
#2. The Ball. I will never be able to throw away any one thing after seeing the video.
#3. Pale Blue Dot. Makes you think about the big questions . . . I had flashbacks from Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth.
Thoughts, feelings?
La Marguerite 
On the third video, the pale blue dot photo was taken in 1990 by the Voyager mission from six billion kilometers.
The second featured photo is called Earthrise. It was taken in 1968 from the Moon by the Apollo 8 mission.
The text is by the astronomer Carl Sagan, taken from the eponymous book, the pale blue dot.
These little things I know thanks to my interest for astronomy and by writing an article on photos of Earth seen from space :
http://www.elrst.com/2008/03/17/earth-seen-from-space/
(and yes, you are right Marguerite when saying it reminds you from an inconvenient truth.)
The two first videos are really fantastic. Thanks for sharing ! 😛
Thanks Edouard, for all the additional info!
gifts today from you – -thank you , my fav is the animated one
You’re more than welcome. The little data I got, I have to share… 😀
You have a good effect on me. You push me to take the time for things I would normally not do.
The video in the middle is about understanding other people’s live. It’s good to see human joy in poor places. You also see the creativity, driven by the need of children to play. It’s humbling, yet at the same time inspiring. I don’t think the video fits the message – a need for more condoms – really well. For this, I think showing the lack of a condom in a sexual setting would work better. For me, this video is more about poverty than about contraceptives.
The first and the third video are about the big picture. I think both are good, but the last one is more positive. It’s actually open-ended, but that can be interpreted positively.
I think the first video in the end, is about guilt. Guilt for us humans wasting the earth. This is exemplified by the artist turning himself into a bear at the end. It carries the message that we’re *worse* then all the other animals. I don’t think that’s true, but right now I do think that we are acting worse than other animals. That explains our guilt. I think there are lots of environmentalists who actually think the world would be better off without humans. I think it would be a loss of biodiversity in any case. I think humans can learn to be as beautiful as other animals, and likewise learn to make our homes and modes of transportation as beautiful as nature.
The past months, when I ride my bike, I often wonder how the streets would look like with no – or much less – cars on it. I think the houses in our city look pretty nice, but the cars are really ugly. So I can really relate to the video. Only I think you shouldn’t push the idea too far in saying that there’s no way for us to do it right.
I actually got a different feeling from the first video. It made me sad and full of grief about what could be and is not, and might never be.
Interestingly, I felt guilt when I saw the second movie. Guilt about my Western lifestyle, and a sense that I am taking more than my fair share. The flip side is a sense of gratitude for what I have. Maslow’s hierarchy was not far in my thoughts as I watched “The Ball”
“Pale Blue Dot” worked more with my intellect.
[…] 18, 2008 by lamarguerite No wonder I felt pangs of guilt while watching “The Ball”. The movie acted as a mirror for my outrageously wasteful lifestyle. It is no consolation to learn […]