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Saturday is Pangea Day
The idea for Pangea Day was inspired by filmmaker Jehane Noujaim's acceptance speech after winning the TED Prize at the 2006 TED Conference. The global event begins this Saturday at 11:00 a.m. PDT with events in six cities including Los Angeles (Sony Pictures in Culver City) and numerous satellite gatherings. In addition to 24 short films, the four-hour event will include live music and speakers.
Max Lugavere and Jason Silva, the founding hosts/producers of Current TV, will be in Culver City to host the inaugural Pangea Day with Lisa Ling and Kenyan filmmaker, June Arunga.
We caught up with Max and Jason to find out exactly what Pangea Day is all about and how Current came to be the sole U.S. broadcast provider for the event. Scroll down further to watch the Pangea Day trailer and several commentaries from familiar faces.
Why is Pangea Day important?
MAX: Humanity has been waiting for this sort of "global campfire" to address issues common to all of us, every single one of us, without an agenda or even point of view. Pangea Day is all about connection, emotion, and the idea that no matter what corner of the world we may live in, we all want to be loved, we all want safety, and we all crave understanding.
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JASON: Pangea Day is an important milestone because it showcases among other things, the power of technology to bring us all a little closer together. We hear a lot about "globalization" and "The global village", but really, our cultures frequently keep us apart, unable to connect with and understand each other. Pangea Day is a global effort, using hearts, minds and TECHNOLOGY to reveal our shared values and our shared humanity. It is technology that turns a big world into a small world.
Why should we tune in?
JASON: Pangea Day will be seen in 180 countries simultaneously creating a
collective feeling of empathy and shared experience. The world has always had a love affair with cinema and PangeaDay uses cinema as its main source of paradigm-shifting power. Max and I will be two of the 4 hosts that day. For the entire 4 hour long broadcast we will be introducing films and speakers, including Christiane Amanpour, Queen Noor of Jordan, Meg Ryan, etc. As this is a global event we will be translated to 7 languages and speaking to an audience of over 500 million people.
MAX: The point of Pangea Day is not to watch in isolation. I mean, you can -- but that'd be missing the point entirely. Around the world, there are literally thousands of "events" both small and large that are meant to bring people together to share in the experience of Pangea Day. As the event is being broadcast LIVE on cable and satellite systems throughout the world, we are actually going to incorporate shots of large groups of people all over the world watching it- essentially you will get to witness your brothers and sisters reacting to the same
films as you, in real time, from the other side of the planet.
Pangea Day Trailer
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David Blaine:
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Cameron Diaz:
John Hodgman:
Dave Stewart:
Kevin Wall:
Forest Whitaker:
Robin Williams:
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Right now, LAist has lost $1.7M in annual funding due to Congress clawing back money already approved. The support we receive before year-end will determine how fully our newsroom can continue informing, serving, and strengthening Southern California.
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