Our good friends at the Muslim Network for Baha’i Rights have posted the following announcement:
A few months ago at Mideast Youth, we wrote about the Bitfilm Festival, whom we are a partner with, to give attention to some digital mash-ups that we have done in the past few years. All but one of these videos have to do with Baha’i human rights abuses in Iran and Egypt.
This morning, the Bitfilm Festival’s website just started accepting votes. Four of our videos are currently competing for an award for the “Politicool” category.
We hope you will register and vote for us! We worked very hard on our videos and hope you can take the time to appreciate them, as it really helped spread the message about Baha’i human rights abuses in a creative, sometimes satirical way.
Our videos are the following:
We have nothing else to count on but your vote! Please register and vote for us, and help spread the word by requesting that others do so via Twitter, Facebook or your own blog! The deadline for voting is the 24th of September.
August 22, 2009 11:44 pm
To the people who have produced the video SAFEGUARD THE INNOCENT: could you please tell whether you have received the permission of Ms Satrapi to use her work? I would certainly not want anyone to use my works of art without my permission, even if it is for defending human rights. So : have you respected Ms Satrapi’s human rights and artist’s rights? If this is the case, please add this to the video.
August 23, 2009 12:23 pm
I registered and voted for Mrs Satrapi. Here Name is there, nobody can misunderstand her work. This is a good promotion for her movies. Every Artist is happy to be so promoted by the admirers of her work. Nobody is taking away her credit or income stream. This is the best respect for an Artists work.
Lawyers may think differently as many Artists loose their income in many non civilized countries. This is not possible in countries like Germany , where the Pizza producer has to pay monthly for Artists Rights when his Radio from the kitchen can be heard by a guest and controllers visit all public places regularly.
August 23, 2009 12:33 pm
Also I sympathize with the spirit these videos are made but the Baha’i principle of non-involvement in partisan politics comes to mind.
How that principle affects the online publication of the videos needs to be explored further, but at present there seem to be enough political references for this blog to temper its unreserved support with further consideration and consultation. IranPresswatch.org is a focal point for the support of the Baha’is in Iran, and messages like the one above are circulated rapidly. Please could I humbly ask you to consider for example the quotation in the comment below, sincere thanks.
August 23, 2009 12:35 pm
– “By the principle of noninterference in political matters we should not mean that only corrupt politics and partial and sectarian politics are to be avoided, but that any pronouncement on any current system of politics connected with any government must be shunned. We should not only take sides with no political party, group or system actually in use, but we should also refuse to commit ourselves to any statement which may be interpreted as being sympathetic or antagonistic to any existing political organization or philosophy. The attitude of the Baha’is must be one of complete aloofness. They are neither for nor against any system of politics. Not that they are the ill-wishers of their respective governments but that due to certain administrative machinery of their Faith they prefer not to get entangled in political affairs and to be misinterpreted and misunderstood by their countrymen. ”
Written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, dated February 8, 1934
August 23, 2009 1:39 pm
The only think I am affraid of is that the author or the producers of PERSEPOLIS might sue in court the kind young people who out of compassion and love have made this video. The law is the law and is applicable to all. Copy right legislation as well.
Although Ms Satrapi’s movie might not be very well known in the English speaking world, PERSEPOLIS was shown in mainstream cinemas and is very famous in the French speaking countries, not only because three major French movie stars (Catherine Deneuve, Chiara Mastroianni and Danielle Darieux) have given their voice to this movie but also because it was very much publised by its powerful producer the France 3 television channel. The PERSEPOLIS movie was even presented in several Festivals accross the world and was nominated for 2008 Oscar Best Animated Feature.
http://www.myspace.com/persepolislefilm
http://www.sonyclassics.com/persepolis/
August 24, 2009 8:10 pm
Dear Carmen,
Thanks for sharing your concern. Here’s how you can be familiar with the way mash-ups work and what “fair usage” of copyright means, both of which can be found at the Center for Social Media:
“The study, Recut, Reframe, Recycle: Quoting Copyrighted Material in User-Generated Video, by Center director Pat Aufderheide and Peter Jaszi, co-director of the law school’s Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property, shows that many uses of copyrighted material in today’s online videos are eligible for fair use consideration. The study points to a wide variety of practices—satire, parody, negative and positive commentary, discussion-triggers, illustration, diaries, archiving and of course, pastiche or collage (remixes and mashups)—all of which could be legal in some circumstances.
Fair use is the part of copyright law that permits new makers, in some situations, to quote copyrighted material without asking permission or paying the owners.”
August 25, 2009 10:17 pm
About politics: some of the official policies of Iran’s government name the Baha’i Faith as an enemy of mankind, and remove the most basic constitutional rights. Responding to this is not a matter of partisanship, especially since the Baha’is ask only that no citizens be treated this way. It is also not against the form of national government: what is pointed out is the contradiction with the constitution and with international covenants Iran is signatory to. Furthermore, each issue raised publicly is in response to public mis-statements of high officials, not candidates. In Egypt the situation is even simpler: some bureaucrats were defying high court authority to deny Baha’is and other individual citizens basic documents. Again, international standards promised by the nation were being denied by the bureaucrats, as attested by the bodies concerned. Self-defence is not partisan. The actual content of the Persepolis ‘remix’ may or may not qualify.
August 26, 2009 8:52 pm
Question: did the producers of SAFEGUARD THE INNOCENT contact the writer/producers of PERSEPOLIS before its release?
August 26, 2009 8:56 pm
to continue–Carmen raised the question earlier and it still does not appear to have been answered directly. I would like to know the answer before I proceed to vote.
August 26, 2009 9:18 pm
When SAFEGUARD THE INNOCENT was first released last year it was avaialable at the Muslim Network for Baha’i Rights website. I looked at SAFEGUARD THE INNOCENT at that time, a note was attached to the link at the MNBR website saying permission has been given by Ms. Satrapi.