Cine-Indie For MDG: A National Digital Film Competition to Promote the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

Short Feature, Animation and Documentary Films Welcome for this new
competition designed to help Filipinos achieve its millennium
development goals.

To help raise awareness and accelerate efforts to achieve the MDGs,
The Forum for FP and Development (The Forum) through the support of
the United Nations Population Fund, Leadership Development Mechanism
(LDM) Philippines and other partners, invites independent filmmakers
from around the country to join the National Digital Short Film
Competition on the MDGs.

for more information see this blog: http://cineindie4mdg.wordpress.com/

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Cine-Indie For MDG:  A National Digital Film Competition to Promote the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

BACKGROUND

In September 2000, the Philippines joined 189 member-states of the United Nations, in committing to the ideals of working together to achieve peace and security, respect for human rights, promote good governance, and strive for development, with particular attention on the needs of the poor, vulnerable and children of the world through the Millennium Declaration.  Through this Millennium Declaration, UN member-states then created and committed to a set of development goals and targets for global human development, called the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), to be achieved by 2015.

A report by the Asian Development Bank, The Millennium Development Goals: Progress in Asia and the Pacific 2007, said that no developing country in the Asia-Pacific region, including the Philippines, will be able to meet all millennium development goals by 2015.  It also said that of the 21 criteria under seven MDGs, the Philippines is either slow or showing no progress in nine categories.

In summary, it was noted that the Philippines lags in reducing the number of its population living in $1  or (P47) a day, reducing the number of underweight children, providing sufficient water, and improved sanitation in rural areas. The country is either showing no progress or even regressing in the MDG criteria on the number of primary education enrollees, number of those able to reach 5th grade, forest cover, carbon dioxide emission and water accessibility in urban areas.  The Philippines still has a high maternal mortality rate with 11 mothers dying each day due to pregnancy and childbirth related complications. 

To help raise awareness and accelerate efforts to achieve the MDGs, The Forum for FP and Development (The Forum) through the support of the United Nations Population Fund, Leadership Development Mechanism (LDM) Philippines and other partners, invites independent filmmakers from around the country to join the National Digital Short Film Competition on the MDGs. 

Cine-Indie For MDG:  A National Digital Film Competition to Promote the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

The competition has three categories - Feature, Animation and Documentary.

CONTEST RULES AND GUIDELINES:

1.      The guiding framework of the competition is the Millennium Development Goals.  Interested participants must choose one or more  from the targets of the MGDs  as guiding theme of their scripts. Any entry that the screening committee finds lacking or wanting of such thrust will be disqualified.  Each entry must clearly show the issues being addressed by the MDGs.

It is encouraged that filmmakers tackle MDGs that the Philippines is slow or least  likely to achieve like MDG 2 and 5.

2.      To help filmmakers in the development of their projects, a series of orientations and consultation meetings will be done in selected cities and venues around the country within April and May, 2009.  Participants may also request the organizers for a briefing/consultation meetings.  There must be at least 20 interested participants to these briefings to maximize the time of the organizers.  Letters of request must be sent through email addressed to The Coordinator at chi.vallido@gmail.com.  Meeting/venue cost will be covered by the organizers at a modest location.

3.      Members of the Cine-Indie for MGD committee are disqualified from joining the competition.

4.      Interested participants may submit a maximum of two entries, but only one entry per proponent may be considered as a finalist/winner.

5.      All works must be strictly independent works and not produced by commercial producers, to guarantee the participants' creative control over the film. Works must be within 5 to 25 minutes long.  Any entry under or beyond the length requirement would be disqualified.

6.      All works must have their premiere screening at the Cine-Indie for MGD Festival.

7.      Works faithful to the theme of the competition which have already been completed or currently in production phase are still qualified for as long as these have not been commercially shown or have been entered in any competition.

8.      The organizing committee has the right to disqualify any proponent who pulls out an entry.

9.      Proponents of the winning entries must attend a meeting and briefing with the organizers.  The organizers will cover cost of travel for provincial winners.

10.   All entries must be in digital video format. Included are 2 DVD  copies for screening and archival purposes.

11.   Due to copyright laws, music used in any entry must be original, licensed or in public domain.

12.   Dialogue should be primarily in Filipino or any vernacular language as appropriate.

13.   The organizing committee will undertake the English translation and subtitling of the winning entries.

14.   The proponent must assign a single representative to act on his or her behalf for communication purposes and to attend the meetings/briefings.

15.   All Mini DV and DVD shipments to the Festival must be prepaid and properly labeled. The Festival cannot accept any collect shipments of any entry.

16.   The Forum for Family Planning and Development Inc. reserves the right to show the winning entries within the span of two years to further promote the advocacy of the organization

17.   The decision of the Board of Judges is final. The board reserves the right not to give awards in any category should no entry merit it.

18.   Lastly, all entries must be made by Filipino filmmakers who have not yet directed more than 2 commercial films.

MECHANICS

Interested participants must submit the following requirements on or before 6:00 PM on 15 July 2009 at :

The Forum for Family Planning and Development Inc.

Room 305, UP Bahay ng Alumni

Magsaysay Ave. Diliman, Quezon City

• A 1 page synopsis not more than 350 words
• The final work in DVD format with the title, production company address, email and contact numbers.
• A resume/biodata and two (2) recent 2x2 photos of the proponent(s)
• The board of judges shall determine three (3) winners for each of the short film category by 15 August 2009.
• All the winners must submit the following by 30 August 2009 for promotional and exhibition purposes:

-        Behind-the-Scenes materials and one-minute trailer in mini DV

-        Major credit title

-        Poster design in CD jpeg format

• All of the winning entries will be screened during the festival week
• Filmmakers will also be invited to campus tours and lectures to talk about their films and help raise awareness among students and the community.
• The winners will receive a cash award, film equipment, trophy and certificates

About the MDGs

What are the targets of the MDGs?

The eight MDGs contain 21 quantifiable targets:

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.

§        Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day

§        Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people

§        Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger

Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education

§        Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling

Goal 3: Promote gender quality and empower women

§        Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015

Goal 4: Reduce child mortality

§        Reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five

Goal 5: Improve maternal health

§        Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio

§        Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health

 Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

§        Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS

§        Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it

§        Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases

Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability

§        Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources

§        Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss

§        Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water

§        Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020

Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development

§        Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system

§        Address the special needs of the least developed countries

§        Address the special needs of landlocked developing countries and small island developing States (through the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States and the outcome of the twenty-second special session of the General Assembly)

§        Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term

§        In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries

§        In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications

The eight MDGs and their 21 targets are measured by 60 identified indicators. For the complete list of indicators, check out  www.undp.org/mdg.

Information Bits and Pieces (source: www.undp.org/mdg)

Did you know?

...The Millennium Project recommends that civil society organizations should contribute actively to designing policies, delivering services, and monitoring progress. [Source: The Millennium Project]

... 92 countries, with 62% of the world's population, are not on track to reduce under-5 mortality by two-thirds by 2015.

... If worldwide trends continue through 2015, the reduction in mortality among children under 5 will be about one quarter, far from the target of a two thirds reduction.

... The Millennium Project recommends that MDG-based poverty reduction strategies should anchor the scaling up of public investments, capacity building, domestic resource mobilization, and official development assistance. They should also provide a framework for strengthening governance, promoting human rights, engaging civil society, and promoting the private sector. [Source: The Millennium Project]

... 11 million children below age 5 still die every year from preventable causes - about 30,000 a day.

... Nearly 1 billion people still do not have access to safe drinking water.

...Income is very unequally distributed across the world: the richest 20% have 74% of the income while the poorest 20% only have 2% of the income.