My wish: A global day of film

In this hopeful talk, Jehane Noujaim unveils her 2006 TED Prize wish: to bring the world together for one day a year through the power of film.

I can't help but this wish:

to think about when you're a little kid,
and all your friends ask you,

"If a genie could give you
one wish in the world,

what would it be?"

And I always answered,

"Well, I'd want the wish

to have the wisdom to know
exactly what to wish for."

Well, then you'd be screwed,

because you'd know what to wish for,
and you'd use up your wish,

and now, since we only have one wish --
unlike last year they had three wishes --

I'm not going to wish for that.

So let's get to what I would like,
which is world peace.

And I know what you're thinking:

You're thinking, "The poor girl up there,

she thinks she's at a beauty pageant.

She's not. She's at the TED Prize."

(Laughter)

But I really do think it makes sense.

And I think that
the first step to world peace

is for people to meet each other.

I've met a lot of different
people over the years,

and I've filmed some of them,

from a dotcom executive in New York
who wanted to take over the world,

to a military press officer in Qatar,

who would rather not take over the world.

If you've seen the film
"Control Room" that was sent out,

you'd understand a little bit why.

(Applause)

Thank you.

Wow! Some of you watched it.
That's great. That's great.

So basically what I'd like
to talk about today

is a way for people to travel,

to meet people in a different way than --

because you can't travel
all over the world at the same time.

And a long time ago --
well, about 40 years ago --

my mom had an exchange student.

And I'm going to show you
slides of the exchange student.

This is Donna.

This is Donna at the Statue of Liberty.

This is my mother and aunt
teaching Donna how to ride a bike.

This is Donna eating ice cream.

And this is Donna teaching my aunt
how to do a Filipino dance.

I really think as the world
is getting smaller,

it becomes more and more important

that we learn each other's dance moves,

that we meet each other,
we get to know each other,

we are able to figure out
a way to cross borders,

to understand each other, to understand
people's hopes and dreams,

what makes them laugh and cry.

And I know that we can't
all do exchange programs,

and I can't force everybody to travel;

I've already talked about that
to Chris and Amy,

and they said that
there's a problem with this:

You can't force people, free will.

And I totally support that,
so we're not forcing people to travel.

But I'd like to talk
about another way to travel

that doesn't require
a ship or an airplane,

and just requires a movie camera,
a projector and a screen.

And that's what I'm going
to talk to you about today.

I was asked that I speak a little bit
about where I personally come from,

and Cameron, I don't know how
you managed to get out of that one,

but I think that building bridges
is important to me

because of where I come from.

I'm the daughter of an American mother

and an Egyptian-Lebanese-Syrian father.

So I'm the living product
of two cultures coming together.

No pun intended.

(Laughter)

And I've also been called,

as an Egyptian-Lebanese-Syrian American
with a Persian name,

the "Middle East Peace Crisis."

So maybe me starting to take
pictures was some kind of way

to bring both sides
of my family together --

a way to take the worlds with me,
a way to tell stories visually.

It all kind of started that way,

but I think that I really realized
the power of the image

when I first went
to the garbage-collecting village

in Egypt, when I was about 16.

My mother took me there.

She's somebody who believes strongly
in community service,

and decided that this was something
that I needed to do.

And so I went there and I met
some amazing women there.

There was a center there,

where they were teaching
people how to read and write,

and get vaccinations
against the many diseases

you can get from sorting through garbage.

And I began teaching there.

I taught English, and I met
some incredible women there.

I met people that live
seven people to a room,

barely can afford their evening meal,

yet lived with this strength
of spirit and sense of humor

and just incredible qualities.

I got drawn into this community
and I began to take pictures there.

I took pictures of weddings
and older family members --

things that they wanted memories of.

About two years after I started
taking these pictures,

the UN Conference
on Population and Development

asked me to show them at the conference.

So I was 18; I was very excited.

It was my first exhibit of photographs
and they were all put up there,

and after about two days,
they all came down except for three.

People were very upset,

very angry that I was showing
these dirty sides of Cairo,

and why didn't I cut
the dead donkey out of the frame?

And as I sat there, I got very depressed.

I looked at this big empty wall
with three lonely photographs

that were, you know,
very pretty photographs

and I was like, "I failed at this."

But I was looking at this intense
emotion and intense feeling

that had come out of people
just seeing these photographs.

Here I was, this 18-year-old pipsqueak
that nobody listened to,

and all of a sudden,
I put these photographs on the wall,

and there were arguments,
and they had to be taken down.

And I saw the power of the image,
and it was incredible.

And I think the most important reaction
that I saw there was actually from people

that would never have gone
to the garbage village themselves,

that would never have seen
that the human spirit could thrive

in such difficult circumstances.

And I think it was at that point

that I decided I wanted to use
photography and film

to somehow bridge gaps,
to bridge cultures,

bring people together, cross borders.

And so that's what really
kind of started me off.

Did a stint at MTV, made a film
called "Startup.com,"

and I've done a couple of music films.

But in 2003, when the war
in Iraq was about to start,

it was a very surreal feeling for me,

because before the war started,

there was kind of this media war
that was going on.

And I was watching television in New York,

and there seemed to be just one
point of view that was coming across,

and the coverage went
from the US State Department

to embedded troops.

And what was coming across on the news

was that there was going to be this
clean war and precision bombings,

and the Iraqis would be greeting
the Americans as liberators,

and throwing flowers at their feet
in the streets of Baghdad.

And I knew that there
was a completely other story

that was taking place in the Middle East,
where my parents were.

I knew that there was
a completely other story being told,

and I was thinking, "How are people
supposed to communicate with each other

when they're getting completely
different messages,

and nobody knows
what the other's being told?

How are people supposed to have
any kind of common understanding

or know how to move together
into the future?

So I knew that I had to go there.

I just wanted to be in the center.

I had no plan. I had no funding.

I didn't even have a camera at the time --
I had somebody bring it there,

because I wanted
to get access to Al Jazeera,

George Bush's favorite channel,

and a place which I was very curious
about because it's disliked

by many governments across the Arab world,

and also called the mouthpiece
of Osama Bin Laden

by some people in the US government.

So I was thinking, this station
that's hated by so many people

has to be doing something right.

I've got to go see what this is all about.

And I also wanted to go see
Central Command,

which was 10 minutes away.

And that way, I could get access
to how this news was being created --

on the Arab side, reaching the Arab world,

and on the US and Western side,
reaching the US.

And when I went there and sat there,

and met these people
that were in the center of it,

and sat with these characters,

I met some surprising,
very complex people.

And I'd like to share with you
a little bit of that experience

of when you sit with somebody

and you film them, and you listen to them,

and you allow them more
than a five-second sound bite.

The amazing complexity of people emerges.

Samir Khader: Business as usual.

Iraq, and then Iraq, and then Iraq.

But between us, if I'm offered
a job with Fox, I'll take it.

To change the Arab nightmare
into the American dream.

I still have that dream.

Maybe I will never be able to do it,

but I have plans for my children.

When they finish high school,

I will send them to America
to study there.

I will pay for their study.

And they will stay there.

Josh Rushing: The night they showed
the POWs and the dead soldiers --

Al Jazeera showed them --

it was powerful, because America
doesn't show those kinds of images.

Most of the news in America
won't show really gory images

and this showed American soldiers
in uniform, strewn about a floor,

a cold tile floor.

And it was revolting.

It was absolutely revolting.

It made me sick at my stomach.

And then what hit me was,
the night before,

there had been some kind
of bombing in Basra,

and Al Jazeera had shown
images of the people.

And they were equally, if not more,
horrifying -- the images were.

And I remember having seen it
in the Al Jazeera office,

and thought to myself, "Wow, that's gross.

That's bad."

And then going away, and probably
eating dinner or something.

And it didn't affect me as much.

So, the impact that had on me --

me realizing that I just saw
people on the other side,

and those people in the Al Jazeera office

must have felt the way
I was feeling that night,

and it upset me on a profound level

that I wasn't as bothered
as much the night before.

It makes me hate war.

But it doesn't make me believe
that we're in a world

that can live without war yet.

Jehane Noujaim: I was overwhelmed
by the response of the film.

We didn't know whether
it would be able to get out there.

We had no funding for it.

We were incredibly lucky
that it got picked up.

And when we showed the film

in both the United States
and the Arab world,

we had such incredible reactions.

It was amazing to see how people
were moved by this film.

In the Arab world --

and it's not really by the film,
it's by the characters --

I mean, Josh Rushing was
this incredibly complex person

who was thinking about things.

And when I showed the film
in the Middle East,

people wanted to meet Josh.

He kind of redefined us
as an American population.

People started to ask me,
"Where is this guy now?"

Al Jazeera offered him a job.

(Laughter)

And Samir, on the other hand,

was also quite an interesting character
for the Arab world to see,

because it brought out the complexities
of this love-hate relationship

that the Arab world has with the West.

In the United States, I was blown away
by the motivations,

the positive motivations
of the American people

when they'd see this film.

You know, we're criticized abroad

for believing we're the saviors
of the world in some way,

but the flip side of it is that, actually,

when people do see
what is happening abroad

and people's reactions
to some of our policy abroad,

we feel this power, that we need to --

we feel like we have to get
the power to change things.

And I saw this with audiences.

This woman came up to me
after the screening and said,

"You know, I know this is crazy.

I saw the bombs being loaded
on the planes,

I saw the military going out to war,

but you don't understand
people's anger towards us

until you see the people in the hospitals
and the victims of the war,

and how do we get out of this bubble?

How do we understand what
the other person is thinking?"

Now, I don't know whether
a film can change the world.

But I know the power of it,

I know that it starts people thinking
about how to change the world.

Now, I'm not a philosopher,

so I feel like I shouldn't
go into great depth on this,

but let film speak for itself
and take you to this other world.

Because I believe that film has
the ability to take you across borders,

I'd like you to just sit back
and experience for a couple of minutes

being taken into another world.

And these couple clips take you inside
of two of the most difficult conflicts

that we're faced with today.

[The last 48 hours of two
Palestinian suicide bombers.]

[Paradise Now]

[Man: As long as there is injustice,
someone must make a sacrifice!]

[Woman: That's no
sacrifice, that's revenge!]

[If you kill, there's no difference
between victim and occupier.]

[Man: If we had airplanes, we wouldn't
need martyrs, that's the difference.]

[Woman: The difference is that the Israeli
military is still stronger.]

[Man: Then let us be equal in death.]

[We still have Paradise.]

[Woman: There is no Paradise!
It only exists in your head!]

[Man: God forbid!]

[May God forgive you.]

[If you were not Abu Azzam's daughter ...]

[Anyway, I'd rather have Paradise
in my head than live in this hell!]

[In this life, we're dead anyway.]

[One only chooses bitterness
when the alternative is even bitterer.]

[Woman: And what about us?
The ones who remain?]

[Will we win that way?]

[Don't you see what you're
doing is destroying us?]

[And that you give Israel
an alibi to carry on?]

[Man: So with no alibi, Israel will stop?]

[Woman: Perhaps. We have
to turn it into a moral war.]

[Man: How, if Israel has no morals?]

[Woman: Be careful!]

[And the real people building
peace through non-violence]

[Encounter Point]

Video: (Ambulance siren)
[Tel Aviv, Israel 1996]

[Tzvika: My wife Ayelet
called me and said, ]

["There was a suicide
bombing in Tel Aviv."]

[Ayelet: What do you know
about the casualties?]

[Tzvika off-screen:
We're looking for three girls.]

[We have no information.]

[Ayelet: One is wounded here, but we
haven't heard from the other three.]

[Tzvika: I said, "OK,
that's Bat-Chen, that's my daughter.]

[Are you sure she is dead?"]

[They said yes.]

Video: (Police siren
and shouting over megaphone)

[Bethlehem, Occupied
Palestinian Territories, 2003]

[George: On that day, at around 6:30]

[I was driving with my wife
and daughters to the supermarket.]

[When we got to here ...]

[we saw three Israeli military jeeps
parked on the side of the road.]

[When we passed by the first jeep ...]

[they opened fire on us.]

[And my 12-year-old daughter Christine]

[was killed in the shooting.]

[Bereaved Families Forum, Jerusalem]

[Tzvika: I'm the headmaster
for all parts.]

[George: But there is a teacher
that is in charge?]

[Tzvika: Yes, I have assistants.]

[I deal with children all the time.]

[One year after their daughters' deaths
both Tzvika and George join the forum]

[George: At first, I thought
it was a strange idea.]

[But after thinking logically about it, ]

[I didn't find any reason
why not to meet them]

[and let them know of our suffering.]

[Tzvika: There were
many things that touched me.]

[We see that there are Palestinians
who suffered a lot, who lost children,]

[and still believe in the peace
process and in reconciliation.]

[If we who lost what is most precious
can talk to each other,]

[and look forward to a better future,]

[then everyone else must do so, too.]

[From South Africa:
A Revolution Through Music]

[Amandla]

(Music)

(Video) Man: Song is something
that we communicated with people

who otherwise would not have
understood where we're coming from.

You could give them
a long political speech,

they would still not understand.

But I tell you, when you finish that song,

people will be like, "Damn, I know
where you niggas are coming from.

I know where you guys are coming from.

Death unto apartheid!"

Narrator: It's about
the liberation struggle.

It's about those children
who took to the streets --

fighting, screaming,
"Free Nelson Mandela!"

It's about those unions
who put down their tools

and demanded freedom.

Yes. Yes!

(Music and singing)

(Singing) Freedom!

(Applause)

Jehane Noujaim: I think everybody's
had that feeling of sitting in a theater,

in a dark room, with other strangers,
watching a very powerful film,

and they felt that feeling
of transformation.

And what I'd like to talk about is

how can we use that feeling

to actually create
a movement through film?

I've been listening to the talks
in the conference,

and Robert Wright said yesterday

that if we have an appreciation
for another person's humanity,

then they will have
an appreciation for ours.

And that's what this is about.

It's about connecting people through film,

getting these independent
voices out there.

Now, Josh Rushing actually
ended up leaving the military

and taking a job with Al Jazeera.

(Laughter)

So his feeling is that
he's at Al Jazeera International

because he feels like
he can actually use media

to bridge the gap between East and West.

And that's an amazing thing.

But I've been trying to think about ways

to give power to these independent voices,

to give power to the filmmakers,

to give power to people who are trying
to use film for change.

And there are incredible organizations

that are out there doing this already.

There's Witness,
that you heard from earlier.

There's Just Vision, that are working
with Palestinians and Israelis

who are working together for peace,
and documenting that process

and getting interviews
out there and using this film

to take to Congress to show
that it's a powerful tool,

to show that this is a woman who's had
her daughter killed in an attack,

and she believes that there
are peaceful ways to solve this.

There's Working Films
and there's Current TV,

which is an incredible platform
for people around the world

to be able to put their --

(Applause)

Yeah, it's amazing.

I've watched it and I'm blown away by it

and its potential to bring voices
from around the world --

independent voices
from around the world --

and create a truly democratic,
global television.

So what can we do to create
a platform for these organizations,

to create some momentum,

to get everybody in the world
involved in this movement?

I'd like for us to imagine for a second.

Imagine a day when you have everyone
coming together from around the world.

You have towns and villages
and theaters --

all from around the world,

getting together, and sitting in the dark,

and sharing a communal
experience of watching a film,

or a couple of films, together.

Watching a film which maybe highlights
a character that is fighting to live,

or just a character
that defies stereotypes,

makes a joke, sings a song.

Comedies, documentaries, shorts.

This amazing power
can be used to change people

and to bond people together;
to cross borders,

and have people feel like
they're having a communal experience.

So if you imagine this day
when all around the world,

you have theaters and places
where we project films.

If you imagine projecting
from Times Square

to Tahrir Square in Cairo,

the same film in Ramallah,
the same film in Jerusalem.

You know, we've been talking
to a friend of mine

about using the side of the Great Pyramid

and the Great Wall of China.

It's endless what you can imagine,

in terms of where you can project films

and where you can have
this communal experience.

And I believe that this one day,
if we can create it,

this one day can create momentum
for all of these independent voices.

There isn't an organization
which is connecting the independent voices

of the world to get out there,

and yet I'm hearing
throughout this conference

that the biggest challenge in our future

is understanding the other,

and having mutual respect
for the other and crossing borders.

And if film can do that,

and if we can get all of these
different locations in the world

to watch these films together --

this could be an incredible day.

So we've already made a partnership,

set up through somebody
from the TED community,

John Camen, who introduced me
to Steven Apkon,

from the Jacob Burns Film Center.

And we started calling up everybody.

And in the last week,

there have been so many people
that have responded to us,

from as close as Palo Alto,
to Mongolia and to India.

There are people that want to be
a part of this global day of film;

to be able to provide a platform
for independent voices

and independent films to get out there.

Now, we've thought
about a name for this day,

and I'd like to share this with you.

Now, the most amazing part
of this whole process

has been sharing ideas and wishes,

and so I invite you
to give brainstorms onto

how does this day echo into the future?

How do we use technology to make
this day echo into the future,

so that we can build community

and have these communities working
together, through the Internet?

There was a time, many, many years ago,

when all of the continents
were stuck together.

And we call that landmass Pangea.

So what we'd like to call this day of film
is Pangea Cinema Day.

And if you just imagine

that all of these people
in these towns would be watching,

then I think that we can
actually really make a movement

towards people understanding
each other better.

I know that it's very intangible,
touching people's hearts and souls,

but the only way that I know how to do it,

the only way that I know how to reach out
to somebody's heart and soul

all across the world,
is by showing them a film.

And I know that there are independent
filmmakers and films out there

that can really make this happen.

And that's my wish.

I guess I'm supposed to give you
my one-sentence wish,

but we're way out of time.

Chris Anderson:
That is an incredible wish.

Pangea Cinema: The day
the world comes together.

JN: It's more tangible than world peace,
and it's certainly more immediate.

But it would be the day that the world
comes together through film,

the power of film.

CA: Ladies and gentlemen, Jehane Noujaim.