Image: Screenshot

The video starts with Madonna’s voice saying –

‘Economic markets are collapsing. People all over the world are suffering and people are afraid. And what happens when people are afraid? They become intolerant’

We’re led into two worlds – the world of the incredible baroque dancers that Madonna shoots with a silver gun (a gun which apparently represents branding), and the world where Madonna is oppressed in a prison, incarcerated for having a point of view. This short film was aimed to help launch Art For Freedom, an online global initiative to facilitate free expression, and was created by Madonna, curated by VICE, and distributed by BitTorrent. On the Art For Freedom website, visitors are welcome to share their videos, music, poetry, and other visual art with the world. Madonna hopes that this will fuel free speech, saying ‘it is an online public art project encouraging the world to express their personal meaning of freedom and revolution’. In January 2014, Katy Perry became a guest curator of the project.

Katy Perry and Madonna with Steven Klein

It has to be said that Madonna is famous for re-inventing herself – and indeed, the question arises as to whether this project is yet another reinvention or advocacy project. Perhaps it’s a bit of both. Regardless, the message is strong: we all deserve love, and it asks us to stop and think during a time when our world is torn apart by intolerance and fear.

When you have some time, during your lunch break today or while surfing the internet before bed tonight, take a moment to watch the 17-minute masterpiece above.

What are your thoughts about Madonna’s initiative? Is it just a clever branding scheme or do you believe it aims to create positive change? Feel free to tweet us @onesmallseedSA or leave a comment below.

Words Gosia Podgórska

Image: Screenshot

Image: Screenshot

HAPPY life from mojebory on Vimeo.

Filmed on a Canon 5D MK II, Happy Life is directed only at the stage of editing. There is no acting, no doubles, no studio lights, no sponsors, and complete without any crew… It’s 100% unrestricted creativity. The video is a whimsical display of the harmony that can exist between people and nature. HAPPY life directs its viewers on what happiness means – peace, contentment, and pleasure in simplicity. Ultimately it reminds us that animals ‘have no constitution, no law… but they work together,’ so why can’t we?

Screenshot

Screenshot

Screenshot

Credits:

Music: Max Richter & Dinah Washington – ‘This Bitter Earth’
Voiceover: Dalai Lama
Sound FX: mojebory
Directed: mojebory
Edited: mojebory
Shot: mojebory
Color grading: mojebory
Mojebory on Facebook

Source: vimeo

The 18^th of January 2012: Wikipedia is down for 24hrs. The site’s servers have not crashed, there are no technical problems. Instead, Wikipedia has shut down in order to protest the United States government, more specifically the ‘Stop Online Piracy Act’that lies before the United States Congress, waiting to be passed.

The bill is designed to curb illegal downloading and protect the pockets of major Hollywood media companies that have seen their profits threatened by the internet in recent years. The argument goes that piracy, or rather free, unlimited access to information, destroys jobs because it deprives content creators of income. Free information means content creators do not get proper compensation for their labour. With free media, or piracy, supply of content is abundant, driving prices down to nothing, or next to nothing. The legislation in the United States is designed to protect people and, supposedly, create jobs. Unfortunately what the bill amounts to, in my humble opinion, is censorship. Petition the State Department by signing HERE.

In addition to Wikipedia’s protest against the bill, Facebook and Google lodged a formal complaint last November, saying

We support the bills’ stated goals. Unfortunately, the bills as drafted would expose law-abiding U.S. Internet and technology companies to new uncertain liabilities (and) mandates that would require monitoring of web sites.

The United States government, and the proponents of this bill want to stop piracy but they do not understand how to do it. Wikipedia shutting down raises awareness about the issue and includes the whole world in the struggle for free access to information. Wikipedia is down globally, not just in the United States. The struggle against free flow of and access to information by profit minded media will continue on many fronts. The United States Congress will not be the only battlefield, and neither will the internet—I don’t think.

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

 
Source: CNN, Wikipedia
Words: Jason Shark