Use your courage to tune in, tap in and turn on you inner power and light. We all have it, no exception. Enjoy the wonderful voice of Ester Hicks as she brings forth this message of positivity and inspiration.
I am a member of Spiritual Cinema Circle. This review by Stephen Simon says it all. This is a move that will inspire people to live in courage and to be a beacon to encourage others.
The Blind Side
Remember what it was like to go to a movie and cry and laugh and applaud and feel great about just being alive when you walked out of the theater?
I do. And you will, too, when you run as fast as you can to a neighborhood theater to see The Blind Side, one of the most touching, wondrous, uplifting, and miraculous movies of the last several years. And, what makes the experience even more delicious is that the film is based on a true story.
Michael Oher was a homeless teenager in Memphis, Tennessee. His father had disappeared when he was a small child, and his mother was such a hopeless drug addict that the state had removed Michael from her custody. He ran away from several foster homes and simply disappeared off the state radar.
Michael was, even as a young teenager, huge and athletic. Through a distant relative, Michael was admitted to a small private high school because the football coach saw Michael’s potential as a football player. The coach persuaded the school administration to admit Michael even though his test scores were well below admission standards. Struggling to understand his new environment, Michael was a gentle soul lost in a new world, with no family and nowhere to call home.
Enter Leigh Anne Tuohy, a fiercely independent and outspoken mother and wife, who not only marched to her own drummer, but who heard the music of a completely different band. A chance encounter with Michael on one cold night convinced Leigh Anne to take the shy teenager under her wing, and into her home and family.
A shy, homeless, and frightened African-American teenager moves into the home of a white, wealthy Southern family, changing all of their lives forever.
The film is absolutely hilarious, touching, engrossing, and brilliant as it follows Michael through his experiences in high school. (The Blind Side refers to the position that Michael learns to play in football. The offensive tackle protects the blind side of the quarterback.) The family’s relentless love and belief in Michael helps him overcome his learning challenges. He also becomes such an incredible athlete that several major universities recruit him.
SPOILER ALERT (This paragraph only): if you don’t want to know more of the story before you see the film, please don’t read this paragraph. The story does indeed have a fairy tale ending. Michael becomes an All-American at Ole Miss and a first round draft choice of the Baltimore Ravens. Today, he is the starting blind side tackle for the NFL Ravens. Over the closing credits, we see photos of the actual Michael and the Tuohys.
Sandra Bullock was BORN to play Leigh Anne and she is sensational in the role, as is Tim McGraw as her husband, and newcomer Quinton Aaron as Michael. The entire cast is brilliant as is the script, the direction, the photography, and everything else!
The Blind Side is quite simply my favorite movie of 2009 and the kind of film “they” used to make. It makes me absolutely crazy when I see the lamestream critics laud dark, cynical movies and turn up their noses at positive, inspired films about the loving, kind, gentle, and compassionate aspects of our humanity. If that’s now considered “sappy”, then I am a human maple tree and proud of it!
The Blind Side is a throwback to a time when movies illuminated the beauty of life, rather than glorifying its ugliness. It should be an Oscar contender for Best Picture and I will certainly use my vote in the Academy to nominate it as such.
Please see it right away. Tell your friends and family, too. I absolutely guarantee you that you will laugh, cry, and feel goose bumps for 2 hours. And you just may love being human a little bit more when you walk out of the theater. What a gift. What a movie.
The End Of Poverty is a new documentary release directed by the brilliant Philippe Diaz. Imagine listening to politicians, economists, and leading experts in the world, along with the voices of people living in poverty. This movie is the first of it’s kind.
The End of Poverty asks why today 20% of the planet’s population uses 80% of its resources, and consumes 30% more than the planet can regenerate? Today, global poverty has reached new levels because of unfair debt, trade and tax policies — in other words, wealthy countries exploiting the weaknesses of poor, developing countries.
The film premiered in NYC this past weekend at Village East Cinema, sold out some show times, and had better box office numbers than every other film playing at the Village East including Disney’s ‘A Christmas Carol’. Unfortunately because a lot of the Hollywood blockbuster’s are coming out this weekend, ‘The End of Poverty?’ will only be playing in New York for one week (ends on Thursday), so make sure to check it out and tell all your friends in NYC.
November 18th 2009 there will be a benefit preview screening in Los Angeles for Office of the Americas. A panel discussion with the director, Philippe Diaz, the founder of OOA Blase Bonpane, and philanthropist Aris Anagnos will follow the screening. Everyone will receive a free gift bag. Tickets are still on sale. Go here for more information: http://www.facebook.com
• The richest 1% of the world’s population owns 32 % of the wealth.
• Today more than one billion people live in the slums of the Southern hemisphere.
• Almost 1/3 of the world’s population has no access to affordable clean water.
• Almost 16,000 children die each day from hunger or hunger- related diseases.
• Cutting global poverty in half would cost $20 billion, less than 4% of the U.S. military budget.
Systems that create poverty have been in place since 1492 when the Spanish and the Portuguese conquered the Americas; indigenous people were killed in mass murders, mineral wealth was plundered, local economies were destroyed, and a plantation culture was established. Although the institution of slavery was abolished in the 19th century, it still exists around the world where at least 80 million people are forced to labor in terrible conditions for very little money. The filmmaker interviews poor workers who complain about being treated like slaves, abused and humiliated, and always forced to live with no security or hope for a better life.
The economic damages wrought by colonialists, with an assist from Christian missionaries, stemmed from a series of power plays that encouraged the private ownership of land, the destruction of the communal way of life, the promotion of individualism, and the stamping out of indigenous cultures. All of these developments solidified the enormous gap between the rich and the poor.
Capitalism with its emphasis on greed, profit, and political wheeling and dealing has further widened the abyss between the haves and the have-nots. Under the aegis of neoliberalism, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have subjugated poor nations — especially in Africa — with the burdens of international debt and economies based on raw-material exports. Two scary stories illustrate the structural violence of neoliberal polices. One is the privatization of the water supply under Bechtel (which was overturned by the angry response of the poor who could not afford it) and the injustices perpetrated on poor Africans who cannot pay for hospitals and schools.
The voices of those who have suffered set alongside the consensus of the experts bears witness to the deprivations heaped upon Southern peoples by the nations of the North who have accumulated more than 80% of the world’s resources for only 20% of the world’s population.
French filmmaker Philippe Diaz discusses his latest gem, The End of Poverty? about the systemic causes of poverty, what is terribly wrong with our system of global capitalism and its control of Western foreign policy. Interview by Jim Dingeman.
This is truly a powerful and moving video that touches the heart at a soul level. A story of living in courage, written in sand animation by Kseniya Simonova, who exhibits such power and intention as she moves us through this story. A requiem to those who died during the patriotic war. Kseniya is the winner of Ukraine’s Got Talent. Her work carries a serious message.
This next video is of Kseniya’s work and includes a personal interview. Feeling the sand is alive and has a story to tell – each carrying their own message, Kseniya beautifully projects this to us, as the viewer. Kseniya is a very busy mother, model and sand artist. She is preparing to collaborate on a tribute to Michael Jackson, and is busy preparing a one woman show. This is a courageous woman, who when her family lost everything, turned to listening to the messages in the sand, in a unique and moving way.
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