Aquifer Media & Will Coley: Social Media Content & Curation Strategy » Human rights

Great new video: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Will Coley — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 22:50:36 +0000

Thanks to Boing Boing for sharing this great video to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Posted in Internet video, Social Justice, Web design Tagged: animation, Film/Video, Human rights

Happy Loving Day!

Will Coley — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:49:15 +0000

In our work to reform out-dated immigration laws, it’s important to remember previous struggles against unjust and retrograde laws.

Only FORTY-ONE YEARS ago today, the U.S. Supreme court overturned bans on interracial marriage in the case Loving vs. Virginia: http://www.lovingday.org/

(I find this amazing since it was only 3 years before I was born…).

La Luta Continua!

The Place of Humor in Advocacy

Will Coley — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 05:30:14 +0000

I just heard Morgan Spurlock (of “Super Size Me” fame- which I LOVED) on “Talk of the Nation” on NPR about his new film “Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?”. I haven’t seen the film yet but I liked how he explained the humorous approach of the film:

“Well I think that you know Lily Tomlin said it best you know that we have to find humor in everything because you through humor we find humanity and I think that when you see this film, there is a tremendous amount of humanity that comes through.”

Here’s something similar he said on Reuters:

“We take this issue of terrorism, Osama Bin Laden, the war on terror and we make it something that’s a little palatable, a little easier to understand, a little more engaging and some people would say you can’t really find humor in this, why is this funny and Lily Tomlin, a great comedian and actress said years ago she said ‘we have to find humor in everything because when you find humor you find humanity,’ and in this movie there is a tremendous amount of humanity.”

I really like the quote from Lily Tomlin and agree with Morgan. It’s part of the reason that I wanted to make the video “Thru the Plexiglass”. I think human rights/social justice advocates shouldn’t shy away from the use of humor, especially if it helps understand the humanity of people experiencing injustice.