Pangea Day

Pangea Day is a film festival event which first took place on 10 May 2008, in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro, and other cities, and was broadcast live across the world. It was initiated by Jehane Noujaim, who first proposed it at the 2006 TED Awards. According to the festival organizers it is designed "to use the power of film to bring the world a little closer together."

In this age images are powerful. Powerful enough to divide, to spread fear, to remove hope. Powerful enough to unite, to build trust, to inspire action. Until now images of the many have been held in the hands of the few. Finally that is changing...

Pangea Day announcement at TED Awards

• Let's get to what I really would like, which is world peace. And, I know what you're thinking — you're thinking "that poor girl up there, she thinks she's at a beauty pageant, she's not, she's at the TED prize"… but I really do think it makes sense. And the first step to world peace is for people to meet each other.
  • Jehane Noujaim, "Jehane Noujaim Unveils Pangea Day"

Quotes about Pangea Day

• In this age images are powerful. Powerful enough to divide, to spread fear, to remove hope. Powerful enough to unite, to build trust, to inspire action. Until now images of the many have been held in the hands of the few. Finally that is changing. Millions of people around the world are telling their own stories. For the first time in history we have the chance to see the world differently, to see it through the eyes of the other.
  • "Can Your Film Change the World?" - Pangea Day promo video at YouTube

• A project like Pangea, which enables us to enter in to the situations of others, imaginatively, is fulfilling what the religions call the Golden Rule... going into one's own experience, and going into other's experience, and seeing the world from another perspective — that's what we desperately need in our dangerously polarized world.
  • Karen Armstrong in "Karen Armstrong Joins Pangea Day!"

• We need to understand each other better — because we all share the same planet — and we only have one of them.
  • Cameron Diaz in ""Cameron Diaz Joins Pangea Day!"

• I wish to bring the world together for one day a year through the power of film.
  • Jehane Noujaim at "Jehane Noujaim's wish" at the official TED site

• I am doing this because it is a great idea — to realize the language of film is so beautiful, and very personal — the most beautiful films of all are made from the heart the soul and beyond — and that is why I want to be a part of Pangea...
  • Robin Williams, in "Robin Williams Joins Pangea Day!"

External links

• PangeaDay.org - The Official Pangea Day Website
• Jehane Noujaim's wish, at the Ted Prize (2006)
• Pangea Day videos at YouTube
• Video of Wish
• "Can Your Film Change the World?" - Pangea Day promo video at YouTube
• "It's Pangea Day" in The Tech Chronicles (10 May 2008)