28 June 2010
A Simple, Winning Appeal for Unity
Nepalese filmmaker uses democracy video to reflect on turmoil
Washington — The South and Central Asia winner of the Democracy Video Challenge for 2010 took a different look at democracy: through a prism.
Twenty-year-old Anup Poudel of Kathmandu, Nepal, says democracy has been an important topic for his family and his nation. He says his father’s involvement in three democratic movements in Nepal and the country’s years of turmoil, which led to the end of the monarchy and the establishment of a democratic republic, inspired his award-winning entry in the Democracy Video Challenge. Poudel is one of six winners of the contest, which recognizes one filmmaker per geographic region.
“The internal conflict in Nepal, political instability and several crises have degraded the sovereignty of the people,” he said in a statement with his entry. “Therefore, I used this video to unite the people for this mutual goal.”
His film, entitled Democracy Is Black, is remarkably simple: offering characteristics — freedom, unity, peace and love — as colors that combine to form the power of democracy.
At 20, Poudel is working on a bachelor’s degree in film studies, and his video My Green Home, on conserving resources, is a prizewinner as well, honored in an Asian Development Bank competition. Many of his works capture aspects of Nepal’s faith and culture as well as its poverty; they use light, Nepalese music and carefully chosen camera angles to highlight the beauty of a potter working on a wheel or even of a boy carrying his younger brother alongside a busy street as he begs.
Poudel says he has always had a passion for film and arts. “Filmmaking gives me two wings to fly through my imagination,” he says.
These are the other winners of the Democracy Video Challenge:
• Adhyatmika from Indonesia: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGIVYm-v3kM
• Joel Marsden from Spain: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rK2WPtzAnk
• Juan Pablo Patiño Arévalo from Colombia: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVW-9wGXrrw
• Farbod Khostinat from Iran: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI6oOgG-HRg
• Yared Shumete from Ethiopia: www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqWFb852eDk
The Democracy Video Challenge is a project involving an array of public and private groups: the Center for International Private Enterprise, the International Republican Institute, the International Youth Foundation, the Motion Picture Association of America, NBC-Universal, the National Democratic Institute, New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, the Recording Industry Association of America, TakingITGlobal, the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, the U.S. Department of State, WME and YouTube.
In its first two years, it has attracted entries from 1,600 people in 110 countries. The videos of the 18 finalists were posted on the Challenge’s official website, its Facebook page and its official YouTube page. The winners were chosen through online voting via YouTube.
(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)
