When I was a kid, I remember watching endless coverage of the “We Are the World” music video. Like a lot of people around the planet, I was amazed by the countless celebrities singing shoulder to shoulder for a good cause that I knew little about. It seemed like a model for some kind of Hollywood-approved free love movement, and without a hint of cynicism, I felt its power, even as a child.
Now we have the internet, and regular folks are the celebrities. Making and distributing a video is about as complicated as writing and sending an email (maybe even less so, considering the inane inconsistencies of English grammar). We can say anything and it can potentially be heard by millions.
In the spirit of this new techno-social reality, Pangea Day exists for a simple reason: To bring the world together through film.
Why? In a world where people are often divided by borders, difference, and conflict, it’s easy to lose sight of what we all have in common. Pangea Day seeks to overcome that – to help people see themselves in others – through the power of film. (Source: Pangea Day)
It sounds so idealistic that it borders on naive, but after watching a couple films like the ones below, I started to shed my cynical armor a bit.
Tank Man
The first is a table-turning retelling of the infamous “tank man” incident from the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, reminding us that the world is much more complicated than our neat political divisions would make it seem.
Imagine! Anthems
Here’s a fun concept: Get people from Country A to sing the national anthem of Country B. There are four films in this series of “Imagine” anthems, but my favorite is Australia singing for Lebanon.
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Each film is created by a different team in a completely different style. Here are QuickTimes of all four films:
France sings for United States
Kenya sings for India
Japan sings for Turkey
Australia sings for Lebanon
For full credits, see this YouTube page.