Launched today, in anticipation of the UN Summit on the MDGs, is a new media initiative that draws artists and activists together behind one goal: improving maternal health, the fifth MDG, on which progress has lagged most.
Cofounded by Emmy-winning filmmaker Lisa Russell and Grammy-winning singer Maya Azucena, MDGFive.com includes creative content by world-renowned musicians and poets, including Zap Mama, DJ Spooky, Toni Blackman, and Carlos Andrés Gómez, as well as visual material from filmmakers and photographers Christy Turlington Burns, Paul Blackthorne, and Azfar Rizvi. The site features a “remixer” that can be used to create short videos using a library of music tracks, spoken word, film, and photos supplied by renowned mixed media artists from Brazil, Honduras, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and other countries.
“The arts are one of the most powerful ways to build bridges among people from all over the world. MDGFive.com has great potential to reach, inform, and mobilize people to make a difference for women’s and children’s health,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “No woman should have to pay with her life for giving life. No child should have to die from a preventable disease. Investing in women and girls is one of the best investments we can make for this and future generations.”
"By working collaboratively with professional artists from around the world—who have tremendous influence in their respective societies and are eager to lend their voice—we feel MDGFive.com will engage a local-global dialogue in this new media environment," said cofounder Lisa Russell. The innovative project has caught the attention of leading international women’s health organizations such as EngenderHealth, UNFPA (the United Nations Population Fund), Ipas, and Women Deliver, who are supporting MDGFive.com to further the reach of the initiative and spur more action on women’s health.
MDGFive.com is encouraging YOU to produce your own videos, and share them with your your social networks. Check out the quick video we just made:
MDGFive.com is built and hosted by Reality Digital, Inc., a leading white-label social media technology provider. The site is powered by the Adobe® Premiere® Express Service, an exclusive joint product of Adobe and Reality Digital, Inc., which combines Adobe’s Premiere Express online video editor with the Reality Digital Opus™ social media platform. The Flash®-based technology enables users to edit video online and add audio, transitions, and special effects to create video remixes that can then be published
to a custom online community where users can view and share favorites.
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