Filmmaker Seeks To Become Peacemaker
What if we trained peacekeepers the way we train generals? That’s the question that Burundi asked and answered with formal training for government and military leaders on building peace.
Filmmaker Jamil Simon is producing a documentary called Fragile Island of Peace about that effort and raising money for the production via Kickstarter.
Commenting on his reason for making the film, Jamil said, “Peacebuilding efforts are currently stuck in a negative cycle rooted in lack of awareness, that severely restricts their potential. Peacebuilding is not recognized as a viable solution to conflict. To reverse that cycle, we need to use media to promote the great, often heroic, work peacebuilders are doing.”
“We need to connect the work of peacebuilding and peacebuilders with the achievement of peace, in the minds of diplomatic and military leaders, as well as the pubic,” he continued.
“I look forward to the day that we send peacekeepers into conflict areas before we send in bombs or soldiers,” he concluded.
On Tuesday, November 25, 2014 at 1:00 Eastern, Jamil will join me for a live discussion about his new film. Tune in here to watch the interview live.
You can download an audio podcast here or subscribe via iTunes.
More about Spectrum Media:
Spectrum Media has made award-winning documentary and educational films on a wide range of topics that have been broadcast on PBS and commercial TV stations and have been screened in schools, colleges and other venues. Recently, we produced several award-winning videos in the Central African Republic for USAID to promote a new methodology for affirming property rights for artisanal diamond miners. These videos are now being used in programs worldwide. For over 20 years we collaborated with Harvard’s Center for Teaching and Learning on a series of videos on college-level teaching that are distributed nationally and internationally. We also have broad international experience designing multimedia public awareness programs to promote reform in more than 20 developing countries. We have promoted conflict resolution skills in Jordan, sustainable agriculture in Malawi, crisis communications in Haiti, democracy in Mali and water conservation in Tunisia.
Jamil Simon
Jamil’s bio:
I have spent 40+ years of working in media production and public communications. I’ve spent 25 years designing innovative and content-sensitive public awareness programs to support environmental, social, and economic reforms in developing countries. The work has given me opportunities to design programs that use media tools in creative ways to support reform in different domains and challenging situations.
Currently, we are in the early stages of production on a documentary about peacebuilding in Burundi, called Fragile Island of Peace. It will tell the story of 10 years of work training over 8,000 Burundian leaders from presidents, generals and parliament leaders to police chiefs and rural mayors in conflict management and leadership skills. Our aim is to tell the stories of the individuals who participated in the process and to see how their personal transformations affected the nation.
In April of this year, I collaborated with the Alliance for Peacebuilding to put together a daylong workshop called Under the Radar that focused on creating a global communication strategy to significantly elevate awareness of peacebuilding as a practice, and as a viable alternative to military solutions to conflict. We convened a high level group of peacebuilders, media producers, broadcast and print journalists, philanthropists and others to develop plans to use media to explain peacebuilding—what it is and how it works—to leaders in diplomacy, development and the military, as well as to the general public. Our event was very successful and we are now planning follow up events in NYC and LA in the fall. Making our documentary, Fragile Island of Peace, is an important step in this process.
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