Animation Con Otakon 2010, a Baltimore Fave

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Parent Category: Expos and Conventions

Category: Previews

Published on Monday, 26 July 2010 22:49

Written by Bree Rubin

Otakon -- one of the largest and longest-running American conventions for Japanese animation and culture -- kicks off festivities in Baltimore Maryland's Inner Harbor, June 30th through August 1st, 2010. Known for its non-stop video screenings, wild costumes, and exclusive international guests, the convention is a highly anticipated event by fans of Japanese entertainment media.

The influence and popularity of Japanese animation and comic books (called manga) has exploded in recent years with the tidal successes of titles like Pokemon, Final Fantasy, and Bakugan. Not just cartoons for children, many of these animated films and franchises, such as the classic action epic Akira or the highly dramatic Second World War epic Grave of the Fireflies, are geared toward and appreciated by adult audiences. You can even get your fix of high-production quality animated pornography, often called hentai.

The name of the convention is a shortening of the Japanese word, otaku (nerd, fanatic) and convention, and is so well-known even world-wide that there is a best-selling Japanese video game with a character also named Otakon. Now in its 17th year, Otakon takes over the entirety of the huge Baltimore Convention Center, packing nearby hotels, restaurants, and sidewalks full of colorful attendees.

Fans often attend the convention (and traipse around the city streets) dressed as characters from their favorite films, games and comic books. The elaborate, eye-catching (and often revealing) costumes, once an oddity to Baltimore locals, are now accepted as a routine parade that marches in once each summer.

Screenings of Japanese movies and television shows are offered around the clock and an enormous dealer's room allows an American audience to purchase media, games, merchandise and Japanese novelty items. There is even a room for up-and-coming visual artists to present their work for admiration or purchase. Multimedia activities and games abound. Oddly enough, the convention has enacted an official vuvuzela ban across the entire convention center.   

The convention welcomes notable guests spanning many genres and media from both home and abroad. One of the most notable of this year's lineup will be Peter S. Beagle, author of classics such as The Last Unicorn, for which he also wrote the screenplay. Director and animator Hiroshi Koujina, also attending, is well-known to anime fans for titles such as Escaflowne: The Movie and Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew. Avant-garde fashion designer H. Naoto, culture researcher and writer Takamasa Sakurai, animation director Koji Masunari and many other names join the list of Otakon guests. Musical guests include the Japanese ensemble Eminence Symphony Orchestra and a highly-anticipated performance by shamisen duo the Yoshida Brothers.  

Always a fun, if bizarre event celebrating the most pop of Japanese culture, Otakon 2010 is sure to be another success for its fanbase. Weekend-long registration can be purchased for $75 at the door, but expect long lines for which the convention is widely known. For more information and a detailed schedule of events and convention offerings, visit the Otakon website at: www.otakon.com

Otakon 2010
July 30 - Aug 1, 2010
Baltimore Convention Center
Baltimore, MD USA

Envision Offers Doc Primer on Global Education

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Parent Category: Expos and Conventions

Category: Previews

Published on Tuesday, 06 July 2010 02:15

Written by Laura Blum

Given the benighted state of primary education from here to Timbuktu, the Independent Filmmaker Project is joining forces with the United Nations Department of Public Information to present the second annual Envision: Addressing Global Issues through Documentaries. The day-long forum held at the TimesCenter in New York City (on Saturday, July 10, 2010) will once again use nonfiction cinema to table some of the knotty issues slowing progress on the UN's Millennium Development Goals.

In the spirit of Woody Allen's quote, "If my films make even one more person feel miserable, I'll feel I've done my job," Envision will have been a success if the UN reps, entrepreneurs, activists, journalists, public policy pundits, NGOs and filmmakers expected to attend stagger home in a pall of gloom.

Talking points come from the MDGs, with the quest for universal primary education topping this year's agenda. The huddle takes on a new sense of urgency in view of the MDG deadline of 2015, which leaves only five years to go. Other proposed Goals -- a suite of eight humanitarian benchmarks established in 2000 -- include reducing child mortality, alleviating hunger and producing sustainable energy.

"Filmmakers are key partners for bringing the message of the United Nations to the public," said Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information Kiyo Akasaka. As IFP Executive Director Joana Vicente added, "we can leverage documentaries to initiate a larger conversation," especially linking the need for children to complete their primary schooling as a strategy to overcome poverty and war.

UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Harry Belafonte will give the opening keynote address, followed by the first title in Envision's feature double bill, Jennifer Arnolds' A Small Act. It chronicles the impact of an anonymous scholarship on a Kenyan boy, Chris Mburu, who went on to become a Harvard-educated human-rights lawyer and head of the anti-discrimination section of the UN Human Rights Agency in Geneva, Switzerland – as well as to create his own scholarship fund. Mburu will participate in the post-screening panel discussion, "Education Obstacles & Solutions in Africa - The Power of One."  

Next up is a panel exploring how citizen media can affect humanitarian issues, "Telling Their Own Stories: The Impact of User-Generated Media and the Individual as Documentarian." Short videos will be woven into the parlay, with discussants from human rights organizations Witness, World Without Walls, Video Volunteers, UNICEF and Breakthrough.

Waiting for Superman, by An Inconvenient Truth director Davis Guggenheim, bookends the feature showcase. Producer Lesley Chilcott will introduce the film, which investigates the failing US school system and ways to improve it. She will also join a panel introduced by New York Times Foreign Editor Susan Chira, entitled "Education: Re-examing the Old Model and Probing the New."

The full program is posted below:

Envision: Addressing Global Issues Through Documentary 2010

9:00 a.m. - Welcome & Opening Remarks

9:15 a.m. - Keynote Address by UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Harry Belafonte

9:45 a.m.
Screening:
A Small Act
directed by Jennifer Arnold
(USA 2010, 88 min)
Introduction: Jennifer Arnold
When Hilde Back sponsored the education of a poor Kenyan boy, she thought little of it and never expected to hear from him. But years later she did. That student, Chris Mburu, now a Harvard graduate and UN human rights officer, decides to find the stranger and replicate the generosity he received by founding his own scholarship fund for a new generation. A Small Act bears witness to the lasting effect that one singular act of kindness can have. A 2010 Sundance Film Festival Official Selection. A presentation of HBO Documentary Films.

11:30 a.m.
Education Obstacles and Solutions in Africa - The Power of One
The film A Small Act reveals on a micro level how an individual act of philanthropy can have a profound effect on a child's education and future. How does this translate on a larger scale as a potential solution to education challenges globally? What other methods and programs are in place or being developed to make advances toward the goal of universal education in Africa and other countries in which multiple barriers exist?

Moderator: Stephane Dujarric, Spokesman, United Nations Development Program. Panelists: Chris Mburu, central character in A Small Act and Head of Anti-Discrimination at the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; Penny Abeywardena, Senior Manager of Education/Girls and Women, Clinton Global Initiative; Allison Anderson, Scholar, Center for Universal Education, Brookings Institution; Michael Gibbons, Education Partnership for Children on Conflict at the Council on Foreign Relations and International Training and Education Program, American University; Heather Simpson, Senior Director, Education and Child Development at Save the Children

2:00 p.m.
Telling Their Own Stories - The Individual as Documentarian and the Impact of User Generated Media
Over the past few years there have been a growing number of programs established by human rights organizations to train and equip individuals around the world with cameras to document and tell stories about the issues affecting their lives and communities. What impact is this having on the issues, the communities, and those individuals who are the storytellers - many of them young people?

Panelists: Karen Cirillo, Executive Producer of Children's Broadcasting Initiatives, UNICEF; Mallika Dutt, Founder and Executive Director, Breakthrough; John Kennedy, Executive Producer, World Without Walls; Jessica Mayberry, Founding Director, Video Volunteers; Ryan Schlief, Asia Program Manager, WITNESS

3:30 p.m.
Waiting for Superman
directed by Davis Guggenheim
(USA 2010, 102 min)
Introduction: producer Lesley Chilcott
From the Academy Award winning director of An Inconvenient Truth comes Waiting for Superman, a provocative and cogent examination of the crisis of public education in the United States told through multiple interlocking stories - from a handful of students and their families whose futures hang in the balance, to the educators and reformers trying to find real and lasting solutions within a dysfunctional system. A Paramount Vantage release. www.waitingforsuperman.com

5:30 p.m.
Public Education - Examining the Old Model and Probing the New
Introduction: New York Times Foreign Editor Susan Chira
Waiting for Superman offers convincing and heartbreaking statistics that characterize the "dropout factories and academic sinkholes" within the US school system, but posits hope for the future. Join some of the real world players and top thinkers examining this landscape in an exciting public discussion.

Moderator: Elizabeth Green, Spencer Fellow in Education Reporting, Columbia University. Panelists: Cindy Brown, Vice President for Education Policy, Center for American Progress; Christopher Cerf, CEO, Sangari Global Education Institute; Lesley Chilcott, Producer, Waiting for Superman; Jason Kamras, Advisor to District of Columbia Dept of Education, 2005 National Teacher of the Year, Nitzan Perlman, Citizen Schools

For more information go to: www.envisionfilm.org.

Envision: Addressing Global Issues through Documentaries
July 10, 2010
The TimesCenter
242 W 41st Street
New York, NY

New Music Seminar Returns July 19 - 21, 2010

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Parent Category: Expos and Conventions

Category: Previews

Published on Monday, 28 June 2010 15:30

Written by Brad Balfour

On a hot 1980 summer day, 220 people met at a New York City rehearsal studio to discuss and debate the problems in the music business. It heralded the birth of the New Music Seminar, bringing new ideas, new talent and new connections to the music industry, along with the introduction of hip-hop, new wave, house and many other new forms of music.

During its 10-year run, the first NMS became the world’s biggest and most influential music business gathering attracting over 8000 people from three continents. The Seminar has since spawned almost every music event worldwide, including SXSW, Canadian Music Week, The Winter Music Conference, In the City and many others.

Now revived, the original NMS is expanding into a multi-day conference and event from July 19th to July 21st, 2010, at The NMS Revolution Hall in M2 Ultra Lounge. The two-day, three-night conference will include a symphony of five “movements” (focused discussions) over the course of two days, 8 TED-style presentations from key industry leaders, 22 mentoring sessions, nightly musical performances and ongoing networking opportunities.

NMS founder Tom Silverman explains, “The New Music Seminar is the epicenter of a new movement. The NMS is the creative crucible where new ideas are hatched and new collaborations formed. The New Music Seminar is a meeting of the architects of the next music business; the creators, the investors, the technological visionaries, those for whom music is a passion that they cannot do without.”

The new New Music Seminar’s mission is to create a music business in which talent can rise to its highest potential based solely on its merit, without regard to its financial resources or connections. To teach artists and their representatives better, affordable and faster ways to achieve success. To create a new economic model that better rewards both artists, their investors and those in artist services.

From the co-founder and director of the legendary New Music Seminar comes a seminar for the NEW business of music. This low-cost event will give you the tools and knowledge to survive in this ever-changing industry and step into tomorrow’s music business today. Two days packed with sessions filled with vital information on how to see it and how to do it. Every delegate receives the NMS New Music Business Guidebook, an invaluable guide filled with useful promotion and marketing tips, contact information, forms and guidelines on how to succeed no matter what genre of music you are in.

The NMS Networking Lounges spread throughout the seminar is the place to meet your next business partners. Visit with NMS Partners, set up a meeting in the comfort of the various NMS Lounges where you can eat, drink and make the contacts you will need to succeed. In addition to the 5 Movements and series of 18-minute TED-style Lectures, on Day 2 our NMS Breakout Sessions throughout the day will give specialized knowledge and instructions on a variety of fields that include influential industry leaders discussing new marketing opportunities, legal, publishing and songwriting, touring and other important areas in which to advance your career.

The New Music Seminar is the must-attend conference for the emerging new music industry. The Seminars will address both the artists’ dilemma of breaking out from the ever-growing glut of music releases and the development of a new business model for a sustainable music business.

NMS featured “players” (speakers) for the upcoming New York City conference will include:

• Eric Garland (Big Champagne)
• Joe Kennedy (Pandora)
• Mike Doernberg (Reverbnation)
• Courtney Holt (Myspace Music)
• Little Steven (Underground Garage and the E Street Band)
• Jay Frank (CMT)
• Gwen Lipsky (Sound Thinking)
• Tom Jackson (onstagesuccess.com)
• Martin Atkins (Tour: Smart)
• John Simson (Soundexchange)
• Corrie Christopher (APA)
• Chris Vinson (Bandzoogle)
• Tony Van Veen (Discmakers)

More to be announced shortly.

The Artist Movement “conducted” by Margaret Cho will feature superstar artists discussing how they got their break and tips on how to apply what worked for them.

Media partners and sponsors include: NARAS, Aquarian, LA Weekly, Music Connection, Digital Music News, Yahoo Music, MySpace Music, Hypebot, Filter Magazine, RevebNation, Bandzoogle, Jakprints, SESAC, Soundexchange, AFTRA, Discmakers, A2IM Indie Label Members and a host of new technology companies

For the NMS tickets please go to www.newmusicseminar.com. Register by April 30th and receive early discount price of $150.

$175 until July 16, then $200 for walk-up registration. For more info go to: www.newmusicseminar.com