Posted on May 14, 2008 at 10:22 pm
Get ready for the new Indiana Jones movie with your very own official Indiana Jones bullwhip! I only have one and it goes to the first person who sends me an email at moviemom@moviemom.com with “Indiana Jones” in the subject line. U.S. addresses only. Good luck! 
Posted on May 14, 2008 at 8:00 am
I am honored to welcome as a sponsor of this site The Responsibility Project from Liberty Mutual. I agree with them that “the more people think and talk about responsibility, the more the world becomes a better place” and I am very impressed with — and inspired by — their thoughtful website about responsible choices, with films, blog posts, resources, and community-building on a wide range of important topics. Is it responsible or irresponsible parenting to allow a nine-year-old to ride the subway alone? Are tattletale websites a way to ensure accountability or a descent into gossip and snarkiness?
I especially love the “what’s your policy” section of the website, which asks visitors a series of questions about what responsible choices are for parents, employers, teachers, students, neighbors, pet owners, athletes, consumers, doctors, politicians, and a range of other categories that include and overlap us all. Each visitor to the site can think through a range of issues and assemble his or her own list of policies. You will be able to see mine as it develops — for example, I said “yes” to the policy that a responsible boss does not multitask when talking to an employee (a good reminder that I do not always live up to this one myself).
When I began the first Movie Mom website almost 13 years ago, it was with the idea of not just helping parents make responsible choices about media for their children but about encouraging parents to use the movies and television shows the families viewed together as a starting point for important conversations about how the characters on screen and how we in our lives make our choices and deal with the consequences. It is a privilege to partner with Liberty Mutual and the Responsibility Project in their effort to help all of us think about what it means to make responsible choices.
Posted on May 13, 2008 at 4:00 pm
The American Film Institute has invited 13-18-year-olds to submit entries for their ScreenNation website, which will:
– Build an online community of empowered 7–12th grade student filmmakers who give voice to their creativity while sharing ideas and feedback.
– Provide a focused online portal for millions of students using video in creative and educational ways, as well as thousands of schools, and other organizations which support these activities.
– Inspire and support students with instruction, challenges and tips from top movie professionals;
– Provide avenues of recognition for quality work;
– Become the definitive site for young people who create movies in the classroom and beyond;
– Provide educators with a safer online video posting and sharing site that integrates well with the increasing use of video in the classroom and related educational endeavors;
– Provide a tasteful, exciting media site for a select group of sponsors who wish to support the increased use of quality production by young people.
Submissions for AFI ScreenNation’s 1st Challenge Hometown Claim to Fame are being accepted now thru June 30th, with the winner announced July 15th.
The winning video entry will receive a Sony DCR-SR45 ~ HDD Handycam Camcorder w/ 30 GB Hard Disk Drive and Tripod.
Posted on May 13, 2008 at 9:00 am
Oscar-winner Helen Hunt returns to the screen in the upcoming “Then She Found Me,” adapted from the book
Hunt’s character, April, is an observant Jew, like her adoptive parents. Her biological mother, Bernice, is not observant in any religion. At the doctor’s office, about to undergo artificial insemination, Bernice suggests that April pray. April refuses. And then, almost unheard of in a Hollywood film (and not in the book, either), the two of them have a private discussion of the meaning and importance of prayer. Do we pray when we feel closest to and most trusting of God or when we feel most lost and bereft? One reason April cannot bring herself to pray at this moment is that it will require her to think about just how much it means to her and to think about the role the connection that God plays in her life. She does not want to think about either. She does not want to give up the notion that this thing she is doing is human — and therefore controllable, not divine. We see for the first time how sensitive Bernice can be and how much she cares about April, how well she understands how much April needs to be more honest with herself about what is going on.
April does pray. But I wonder if the prayer she says is the one a real-life observant Jew would say in those circumstances. I guessed she would say Mishaberach, a prayer of healing, or Shehekianu, a prayer of gratitude and being in the moment. Instead, she says the oldest and holiest of prayers, the Shema. Perhaps the screenwriters use that prayer because it is the most widely recognized. Or perhaps, in her moment of greatest hope and anguish, April would reach back to the first prayer she learned, the one that reminds us that God is One.
Posted on May 12, 2008 at 6:00 pm
In 1935, the debate team from a tiny all-black college took on the top white team in the country and they won. This is that story, Oprah-fied to be sure (Winfrey’s company produced the film), but powerfully told by director Denzel Washington, who also stars as the team’s coach, distinguished poet Melvin B. Tolson.
