by Shine Global | May 18, 2011 | News, Shine News
The new Inocente Trailer is now up!
In San Diego, a young teenage girl’s eyes stare into a compact mirror. She paints a dramatic black swirl around her eye. She never knows what her day will bring, but she knows at least it will always begin with paint.
INOCENTE is an intensely personal and vibrant coming of age feature documentary about a young artist’s fierce determination to never surrender to the bleakness of her surroundings.
At 15, Inocente refuses to let her dream of becoming an artist be caged by her life as an undocumented immigrant forced to live homeless for the last nine years. Color is her personal revolution and its extraordinary sweep on her canvases creates a world that looks nothing like her own dark past – – a past punctuated by a father deported for domestic abuse, an alcoholic and defeated mother of four who once took her daughter by the hand to jump off a bridge together, an endless shuffle year after year through the city’s overcrowded homeless shelters and the constant threat of deportation.
Despite this history, Inocente’s eyes envision a world transformed…where buildings drip in yellow and orange, where pink and turquoise planets twinkle with rescued dreams, and one-eyed childlike creatures play amongst loved babies and purple clouds. Inocente’s family history is slowly revealed through her paintings, which are brought to life onscreen in an animated storyline of her own creation and woven throughout the narrative.
Told entirely in her own words, we come to Inocente’s story as she realizes her life is at a turning point, and for the first time, she decides to take control of her own destiny. Irreverent, flawed and funny, she’s now channeling her irrepressible personality into a future she controls. Her talent has finally been noticed, and if she can create a body of work in time, she has an opportunity to put on her first art show. Meanwhile, her family life is at a tense impasse – – if she legally emancipates herself from her mother to strike out on her own, she’ll risk placing her brothers in foster care, but to stay is unbearable.
INOCENTE is both a timeless story about the transformative power of art and a timely snapshot of the new face of homelessness in America, children. Neither sentimental nor sensational, INOCENTE will immerse you in the very real, day-to-day existence of a young girl who is battling a war that we rarely see. The challenges are staggering, but the hope in Inocente’s story proves that the hand she has been dealt does not define her, her dreams do.
by Shine Global | May 9, 2011 | News, Shine News
There’s still time to bid on this once in a lifetime opportunity! You and one guest could meet the one and only Will Smith as you take a tour of the Men in Black III set in New York City this Spring! As you tour the set, you might even get to see other cast members such as Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin and Jemaine Clement of Flight of the Conchords. After your tour, you will even get to have your picture taken with the great Will Smith and legendary director Barry Sonnenfeld!
Since the first title in the series launched in 1997, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones have become one of the most dynamic on screen duos in movie history. Now in it’s third iteration, the “Men in Black” series has captured the imaginations of fans for nearly 15 years! Bid now to be part of this historic set and meet one of the greatest actors of our generation.
All of the proceeds from this auction will help Shine Global in our mission to end the abuse and exploitation of children worldwide. All children have the right to a childhood and you can help this happen.
The auction ends Tuesday, May 17th at 3:oopm EST so hurry before you miss this chance!
Visit Charity Buzz: http://www.charitybuzz.com/catalog_items/265414
by Shine Global | May 2, 2011 | Hero of the Month, News
By Jared J. Jones
Ashley Judd
During the course of her memoir’s publicity tour this past month, Golden-globe nominated actress Ashley Judd opened up to the public, revealing the hard truths of her difficult childhood. Behind her enduring public facade has lain the reality of repeated sexual abuse, horrific traumas held in secrecy for decades.
In her book, entitled All that is Bitter and Sweet, Miss Judd recounts stories of forced molestation and advanced sexual exposure, laying out her experiences with candid faculty. Among the memories she recalls – often in raw, graphic detail – includes an incident in which she was pulled in by a dark and empty story; she was lured in by an older man offering her a quarter to play pinball. What ensued was Miss Judd’s first violent sexual encounter in a string of many to come.
Beyond unveiling the difficult details of her past, Miss Judd has proven equally open about the troubles they’ve caused her in her later life. She is forthright in sharing how her experience as an adult has been riddled by battles with severe depression and frequent descents into suicidal territories, eventually landing her in treatment centers during the most severe of periods. In one of the most harrowing instances, she tells of playing with a loaded gun, cocking the trigger and pressing it to her head. Her story is not unlike that of the hundreds of thousands of children falling victim to abuse every year, who then commonly face impossible struggles in their later life. Like her, these children are maliciously forced into a grim future.
The power and courage of Miss Judd’s actions in coming forward to the public cannot be understated. In sharing her own experiences, she not only serves to shine a light on an issue running rampant across the world, but also as an inspiration to those who so often find themselves without a voice, lost in a world of shame and secrecy.
Miss Judd has lived an exceptional life, managing to break free of the constraints of sexual abuse to achieve astounding success. In the field of acting, she has become a household name, at one time being the highest paid actress in America. It is commendable for her to stand as an emphatically involved figure against sexual abuse among minors, shedding her vulnerability and facing the unfathomable head on.
This is hardly the first time Miss Judd has made an effort towards the betterment of children worldwide. She is known to be an eager philanthropist, intimately participating in various international causes. Since her college years, she has involved herself in a number of social and political efforts, many of which focus on children’s issues.
Since 2004, she’s served as an ambassador for YouthAIDS, traveling to Cambodia, Kenya and Rwanda, among other nations affected by the HIV epidemic, offering her celebrity to bring much needed publicity to a dire worldwide issue. Additionally, Miss Judd selflessly donated her time and resources towards the production of three award-winning, internationally-aired documentaries for the organization: India’s Hidden Plague, Tracking the Monster, and Confronting the Pandemic – a project which garnered her a Distinguished Visitor award during her time in Guatemala. She is in the process of directing her first documentary project, focusing on a victim of traumatic fistula in Ethiopia.
After bearing first-hand witness to the experiences of the impoverished and uneducated during her initial travels to developing nations through YouthAIDS, Miss Judd has become a vocal advocate towards poverty prevention and international awareness of third world living conditions. She has been known to meet with key leaders across the globe, including heads of state, religious leaders, and diplomats, in a valiant effort to bring her message to the door step of those with the power to bring about progressive political and social change.
In 2008 Miss Judd gave the keynote address on the modern slave trade to the 2008 General Assembly of the United Nations. She is frequently invited as an expert panelist/moderator at conferences such as the Clinton Global Initiative, the International AIDS Conference, and the National Press Club.
Miss Judd has been a vital contributor to many charities and foundations. These include the Children’s Medical Research Institute, Creative Coalition, Five & Alive, Jeans for Genes, and Equality Now, among many more. As of this year, she serves on http://www.aipa.com.au/cialis-online/ the Leadership Council of the International Center for Research on Women among 15 high-profile global leaders, advising the foundation on select issues. Her biography as a humanitarian is as honorable as it is extensive.
To learn more about some of the various efforts Ashley Judd is involved with, use the following links:
Children’s Medical Research Institute: http://www.cmri.org.au/
The Creative Coalition: http://www.thecreativecoalition.org/
Jeans for Genes: http://www.jeansforgenes.org.au/
Listen Campaign: http://www.listencampaign.com/
Population Services International: http://www.psi.org/
YouthAIDS: http://www.psi.org/youthaids/
Equality Now: http://www.equalitynow.org/
Five & Alive: http://projects.psi.org/site/PageServer?pagename=fivealive
by Shine Global | May 2, 2011 | Events, News, Shine News
THE HARVEST/LA COSECHA
THE HARVEST/LA COSECHA is screening this Wednesday, May 4th, 2011 at 6:30pm at El Museo del Barrio in New York City as part of their Nuevo Cine series. The Nuevo Cine series is presented by El Museo in collaboration with the Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies, CUNY, and reflects on the diverse faces of labor and the changing tides for workers.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A session with Director U Roberto Romano, Zama Coursen-Neff, the Deputy Director of the Children’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch and the author of “Fields of Peril: Child Labor in US Agriculture,” and and members of the Community/Farmworker Alliance (NYC) and People’s Production House. Also joining us at the screening will be Executive Producers Susan MacLaury and Albie Hecht of Shine Global and other members of the film making team behind THE HARVEST/LA COSECHA. This will be a great opportunity to see Shine Global’s latest film, meet the production team, and learn more about child migrant farmworkers in the US and what can be done to help them!
The screening is free and open to the public but an RSVP is required: http://www.elmuseo.org/en/event/nuevo-cine-harvest-la-cosecha
El Museo del Barrio is located at
1230 Fifth Avenue (at 104th Street)
New York NY 10029
DIRECTIONS
Subway
#6 train to 103rd Street station, walk one block north to 104th Street, then two blocks west to Fifth Avenue.
#2 or #3 train to 110th Street and Lenox Avenue, walk one block east to Fifth Avenue, then south to 104th Street.
