Las Vegas Obama Ball

In addition to a week-long meeting over international animation production, AniFest, which runs through May 10 in Trebon, strives to facilitate the best contacts among Central European artists who are engaged in animation, especially after the festival through the ongoing AniFest Echoes. The Council on Foundations’ 42nd Annual Film & Video Festival in Baltimore showcases films, videos, and television programs, May 4-7, that have received support from foundations, corporate giving programs, and donor networks, with the aim of encouraging grantmakers to use media to advance their philanthropic goals. A festive party atmosphere takes shape when the 16th Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film presents a program from May 5-10 of screenplay workshops, fine art by Japanese artist Kozue Kodama, live music, and animated film in the open air festival garden at the Schlossplatz, free of charge to the public.  Representatives of newspapers, television, magazines, radio and web-only outlets will come together to discuss new-media both on the business and editorial sides, and culminating  with awards for the Best Media-Affiliated Internet Services presented by Editor & Publisher and Mediaweek, at the Interactive Media Conference & Trade Show happening in New Orleans, May 6-7.

For one day, on May 11, Content Delivery Summit assembles in New York and brings together customers, vendors, analysts, and Wall Street to discuss and define where the video delivery industry is headed. And on the very next day, May 12-13, in the same New York hotel, annual Streaming Media East 2009 Conference & Exhibition continues the topic of online video in a broader sense, catering to the needs of content owners, viral video creators, online marketers, enterprise corporations, broadcast professionals, ad agencies, educators and others that come to Streaming Media East to see and hear the latest online video technology, and to discuss the business models that are coming of age. Game Developers Conference Canada 2009 meets May 12-13 in Vancouver and covers industry-leading methodologies in game design, production, programming, visual arts and writing for big-budget multiplatform games. The CLIO Awards will be celebrating its monumental 50th Anniversary in Las Vegas, highlighting accomplishments in the industry with five new and distinct award shows, after parties, conference sessions, industry networking opportunities, and more. Cannes Film Festival gets started this year May 13, continuing through May 24.

Former US president Bill Clinton will join actress Sharon Stone at this year’s Cannes Film Festival AIDS fund-raiser in southern France, Clinton will attend the May 21 event alongside Stone, Harvey Weinstein, Carine Roitfeld, Michelle Yeoh and Donatella Versace, among others. The gala will take place at the Eden Roc, at Cap d’Antibes. The Indie Film Jam is back for its fifth year as part of the Florida Music Festival, running May 14-17, screening selected films in the heart of Downtown Orlando throughout the FMF weekend and offering independent filmmakers networking opportunities as well as industry panels designed for educating, enlightening and gaining insight into the world of filmmaking. The George Foster Peabody Awards which recognizes distinguished achievement and meritorious service by broadcasters, cable, webcasters, producing organizations, and individuals, conducts its 68th annual awards May 18 in New York, with a reception that begins at 11 am, followed by lunch, with Brian Williams of NBC Nightly News the events MC. At this year’s Seattle International Film Festival, running May 21 through June 21, SIFF will present the 2009 Golden Space Needle Award for Outstanding Achievement in Directing to Spike Lee, on May 23, followed by a screening of Lee’s ‘Passing Strange, a Q&A session, and an intimate Tribute Dinner celebration with Spike Lee as the guest of honor. Later in the festival, director Francis Ford Coppola  will host a special presentation of his new film, ‘Tetro’ at a June 10 screening. MUTEK is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the dissemination and development of avant-garde digital creativity in sound, music, and audio-visual art, which it does in part through the annual presentation of its namesake festival held in Montreal, this year running May 27-31. Nashville Screenwriters Conference will again offer one of its more popular panels, “Music in the Movies,” offering aspiring songwriters, composers and artists advice on how to get their music placed in films and TV, when it assembles again this year for sessions running May 29-31.

The above events are only a sample of what is fully listed. Complete details are on the “Media, Entertainment and Performing Arts Industry News and Events” page. Video and podcast versions of this news summary are also available at popular video sites around the Web like MySpace, YouTube, Daily Motion, as well as on The Actor’s Checklist podcast blog. Leading entertainment industry publication Back Stage has redesigned their Backstage.com website to allow for better resume and picture upload, casting and job alerts, and much more. Follow the posting of the news summary on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/actorschecklist  This month on the video news summary you will again see a dynamic array of artists in performance of film and music. Last month’s video news summary showcase featured New Jersey based Mindbreak Entertainment’s with murder mystery thriller The Secret, directed by Ian J. Kenney. The futuristic 4D virtual gaming arena ‘Turbo’ a short film from Jarrett Conaway, in the tradition of the Karate Kid and Tron. Los Angeles based Rooftop Mind, with ‘Sex Text’ and The Moonlit Road. Music video production company, THEfilmboyPROJECT, of London with ‘Never Wanna Lose You’ performed by East End hip hop, r&b group, DNA. A documentary segment in which film composer Jermaine Stegall conducts the Hollywood Studio Symphony. These videos are now available on the Free Home Video Showcase which now serves as an archive for all past video presentations but without the audio news narration.

I am a member of the Electro Magnetic Fields Discussion Group (EMF-DG) which is chaired by Sir William Stewart, Chairman for the Health Protection Agency UK (HPA) the HPA are advisors to the UK Government.

I was invited to give a presentation on mobile phone masts and health concerns at the Health Protection Agency, London on 16th October, 2006. I am a founder member of Seriously Concerned Residents Against Masts (SCRAM), the EM Radiation Research Trust (RRT) and Human Ecological Social Economic (h.e.s.e.) UK. The EM Radiation Research Trust (RRT) includes fellow trustees:

Mike Bell, Chair of the Trust and Devon based lawyer Dr Ian Gibson, labor MP – Originally a senior academic research biologist Dr Gerard Hyland, Associate Fellow of Warwick University Dr Caroline Lucas, Green Party MEP for South-East England

Andrew Mitchell, Conservative MP and Shadow Secretary of State for International Development Mark Oaten, Liberal Democrat MP, concerned with Health and Environment issues

Brian Stein, Chief Executive Samworth Brothers Ltd. He suffers from EHS. The trustees have presented evidence at the UK and European Parliaments. We have attended private meetings with Director Generals and many MPs including: European DG for Health and Consumer Products

Why I became involved – The T-Mobile Wishaw mast 1994-2003 In 2001 I was diagnosed with breast cancer age 38 after living 100m from a phone mast for over 7 years. The mast was also associated with health problems in many other people living in most of the other houses in the village.

The hamlet of Wishaw is a prime example:

Five women developed breast cancer

One case of prostate cancer

One bladder cancer

One lung cancer

Three cases of pre-cancer cervical cells

One motor neurone disease age 51, who also had massive tumor removed from the top of his spine.

People have developed benign lumps

Electro-sensitivity

Three cases of severe skin rashes

Many villagers suffering with sleep problems, headaches, dizziness and low immune system problems.

Horses with blood problems, continuous treatment needed by the vet.

Out of the eighteen houses surrounding the mast at up to a range of 500 meters, 77% of the tiny hamlet had health related illness believed to be as a result of radiation from the mast. The out break of illness occurred in 2001 after seven years of exposure to the radiation emitted by the T-Mobile mast. We are now in contact/communication with many people who claim to be suffering from this form of radiation throughout the UK and Europe.

One other important fact is that since the Wishaw Mast vanished on November 2003, many of the residents are reporting a restored feeling of well-being. The residents are reporting improvement in their sleep patterns and increased energy levels. The headaches and dizzy symptoms have disappeared. We have recently seen a baby boom with three babies born in the village.

We have also seen a return of wildlife in the area and the horse has since recovered and is now strong and healthy and no longer needs treatment.

Wales votes yes to phone mast planning shake-up, media release 13th October, 2006 The National Assembly for Wales has accepted by a unanimous vote (41 to 0) the principle of full planning for phone masts, leaving England isolated as the only part of the UK where full planning for phone masts will not be required.

The report which was the subject of the vote put forward if fully implemented would give the people of Wales the greatest say on phone masts siting than anywhere else in the UK.

International Association of Fire Fighters

IAFF oppose the use of fire stations as transmitter sites, because of the health problems of its members T-Mobil in Germany commissioned ECOLOG to review over 220 pieces of peer reviewed and published papers and they found evidence for: Effects on the central nervous system, Cancer initiating and promoting effects, Impairments of certain brain functions, loss of memory and cognitive function.

Ecolog called for the ICNIRP guidelines to be reduced immediately. The Ecolog report was released in the year 2000 the same year as the Stewart report which seemed to reach a different conclusion. However, the report was never translated into English until H.e.s.e. UK recently uncovered it six years later.

This demonstrates the desperate need to release funding to translate further research that is available in Russian and German languages, it’s unbelievable that in the 21st century important research not reviewed or taken into account due to language barriers. At the same time there were reports of riots in Israel 14 March 2000 residents rioted in Druse town of Usfiyeh. They claimed clusters of over 200 cancers related to antennas.

Residents destroyed all phone masts by burning them, knocking them down and ripping out cables ICNIRP accused of peddling corrupt science paid by the mobile phone companies. Israel- on 27 September 2006 – 200 people from the neighbourhood Neve Horesh, in Dimona, took their health and the law into their own hands, destroying phone mast equipment.

Saying “It was about our childrens lives. This is not unique to Israel the same claims have been made in many other parts of the world and the UK has also seen a number of phone masts illegally removed.

Taiwan – nearly 900 masts were finally demolished in 2005. The operators spent a total of more than (US$30.8 million) in dealing with such issues. This year, the total cost incurred is likely to rise to (US$61.7 million), the operators estimate.