Above: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, center, and
Under Secretary of State Judith McHale, far right, pose with the
six filmmakers who won the 2010 Democracy Video Challenge.
Tadias Magazine
Events News
Updated: Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Washington — The winners of the 2010 Democracy Video Challenge – including the grand finalist from sub-Saharan Africa Yared Shumete of Ethiopia – were greeted by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at a September 10 awards ceremony at the State Department.
The artists were officially acknowledged for the short videos they created about the nature and exercise of democracy. According to America.gov, “Each winner was awarded an all-expenses-paid trip to Los Angeles, New York and Washington and met with members of civic and film organizations in all three cities.”
“The prompt for the Democracy Video Challenge ‘is open-ended,’ Clinton said. As she noted, the winner from Nepal had observed that ‘democracy can exist in all countries and it doesn’t have a fixed shape or size.’ However, ‘the fundamental tenets are non-negotiable,’ said Clinton. ‘The videos we are honoring capture essential truths about democracy across the world: democracy is about fair play, and [it] is a learning process.'”
“In a speech I gave at the Council on Foreign Relations earlier this week, I said democracy needs defending,” Clinton added. “Well, I think we have a good cross section of defenders here. One of our winners, whose beautiful video was inspired by the Green Movement in Iran, said: ‘If I believe I want democracy, I should fight for it. And this is my way of fighting.’ It gives me great hope to see what young people are saying.”
“Here at the State Department, we often talk about the need to use 21st-century diplomacy to solve 21st-century problems,” said Clinton. “This is the heart of that 21st-century diplomacy — connecting directly to people, particularly young people, around the world.”
Moreover, she said, “we are about to kick off the third annual Democracy Video Challenge at the United Nations next week, so I am very eager to see what ideas this [program] continues to generate.”
Participants were challenged to conceptualize and depict in a short video their interpretations of democracy by completing the phrase “Democracy is…” More than 700 filmmakers in 83 countries submitted their videos via YouTube and the winners were selected by an online public vote that closed on June 15.
The 2010 winners are:
• Adhyatmilka from Indonesia
(East Asia), for the video Democracy is yet to learn
• Anup Poudel from Nepal
(South and Central Asia), for the video Democracy is black
• Farbod Khoshtinat from Iran
(Near East and North Africa) for the video ATTN: Mr. Democrat
• Joel Marsden from Spain
(Europe), for the video World Vote Now
• Juan Pablo Patiño Arévalo from Colombia
(Western Hemisphere) for the video Democracy is … the right of life (War Child)
• Yared Shumete from Ethiopia
(sub-Saharan Africa) for the video Democracy is fair play
Watch
Yared Shumete of Ethiopia
Yared with Hillary Clinton
Yared’s film depicts a childhood game, familiar to many Ethiopians, in which two boys take turns throwing rocks. If the first boy’s rock is hit by the rock of the second boy, the second is entitled to ride on the back of the first boy, who has to run all the way to where the rocks landed. They throw their rocks again, and switch places whenever one boy’s rock hits the rock of the other. In less than three minutes, Yared’s video illustrates the democratic principle of fair play, according to well-understood rules.
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Source: America.gov, U.S. State Department, U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa.
Cover Image: From left to right, Juan Pablo Patiño Arévalo of Colombia, Yared Shumete of Ethiopia, Adhyatmilka of Indonesia, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Farbod Khoshtinat of Iran, Anup Poudel of Nepal, Joel Marsden of Spain and Under Secretary of State Judith McHale. (America.gov)
Watch video: Democracy is fair play (Yared Shumete, Ethiopia)