Sunday, February 18, 2007
CSAfrica presents
Left Behind + Baba Mandela
at the 15th Pan-African Film and Arts Festival
Panelists
Dr. Reuben Jaja, President USA Africa Chamber of Commerce, Nigerian Leader
Amy Bookman , AMREF USA board member
Phill Wilson, Executive Director of the BlackAIDS Institute
Olivia Clements, Crossroads Teen AIDS Ambassadors
Michael Mungai Nyumbura from Dagoretti4kids (featured in Left Behind)
Christof Putzel, filmmaker of Left Behind
Moderator: Anne Goeke, CSAfrica, Earth Rights Institute
Dr. Reuben Jaja was born in the Kingdom of Opobo in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, and he currently serves as the Chairman and CEO of BFI Group Corporations in Los Angeles. Dr. Jaja is a champion for African American involvement in Global Commerce and in particular with Africa. Mr. Jaja also serves as the President of the Africa-USA Chamber of Commerce & Industry, a non-profit organization promoting trade, commerce and industry between the US and 53 nation states of Africa. Dr. Jaja serves as a board member for the King Jaja of Opobo Foundation - USA, promoting the growth of modern African. Dr. Jaja also advocates America’s interest in the Niger Delta Gulf of Guinea Region in helping develop economic stability and peace for the local communities. USA Africa Chamber of Commerce
Amy Bookman has a background in the motion picture and television business, working as a CAA agent for 17 years. She became a U.S.A. Board member of AMREF in 2001 after visiting Kenya and the Amref projects there for the first time.AMREF
Phill Wilson is Founder and Executive Director of the Black AIDS Institute. Prior to founding the Institute, Mr. Wilson served as the AIDS Coordinator for the City of Los Angeles, and the Director of Policy and Planning at AIDS Project Los Angeles, for three years each. He was co-chair of the Los Angeles County HIV Health Commission from 1990 to 1995, and was an appointee to the HRSA AIDS Advisory Committee from 1995 to 1998. Mr. Wilson coordinated the International Community Treatment and Science Workshops at the 12th through 16th International AIDS Conferences in Geneva, Durban, Barcelona, Bangkok, and Toronto, respectively. Wilson was a member of the US delegation to the 1994 World AIDS Summit in Paris, and has worked extensively on HIV/AIDS policy, research, prevention, and treatment issues in Russia, Latvia, the Ukraine, the UK, Holland, Germany, France, Mexico, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, India, and Botswana. Mr. Wilson graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Fine Arts from Illinois Wesleyan University. He currently lives in Los Angeles with his partner, Mark Schoofs. BlackAIDS Institute
Olivia Clements, a junior at Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences, trained at the UCLA AIDS Institute in January of 2006 to become a Crossroads Teen AIDS Ambassador. She has been active in peer-to-peer HIV/AIDS education throughout Southern California and beyond. This past December Olivia traveled to Tanzania and Kenya to better understand the complexities of the global AIDS pandemic. She participated in public awareness programs and attended the Third National Multi-Sectoral AIDS Conference while in Tanzania. In Nairobi, Olivia trained with the director of the National AIDS Control Council and with Karusa Kiragu, a Behavior Change Specialist from Kenya’s Population Council. She spent three days in Kibera performing home visits and interviewing people living with AIDS. On New Year’s Eve, Olivia and her fellow Teen AIDS Ambassadors partnered with ten local community-based organizations (CBO) to produce an all-day HIV/AIDS awareness public program replete with Voluntary and Confidential Counseling and Testing (VCT testing).
Michael Mungai Nyambura is the Co-Founder and Co-Director of Dagoretti 4 Kids. Abandoned by his father as a young boy, Mungai's mother struggled to feed her four children in the slums of Dagoretti, Kenya, sometimes earning as little as $2 a day. Unable to pay for school Mr. Mungai was kicked out, and at the age of 14, he became another homeless Kenyan boy trying to help his family by living on the streets, and easing the burden of supporting him. Living on the streets, Mungai met Christof Putzel, while filming his debut documentary Left Behind. Before leaving Kenya, Mr. Putzel introduced Michael to Bonnie Graboski, from Allentown, PA., who was volunteering at an orphanage in Kenya. Graboski paid for Mr. Mungai to finish school and helped him identify potential sponsors for a much needed youth center in Dagoretti. "She is the most important women in my life next to my mom. She gave me my life," says Micheal. In June 2003, they acquired funding and resources needed to start Dagorretti 4 kids, which currently supports over 50 youth. Micheal Mungai Nyambura is now a sophomore at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Dagoretti4kids
Christof Putzel is the Director and Producer of Left Behind, as well as a Producer/ Correspondent for Current TV. Putzel is a third generation news correspondent, and over the past year he has produced two-dozen pieces for Current, including segments about the exploitation of gold miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the small arms trade in Somalia. In the summer of 2006, he was the first American TV journalist to venture into Mogadishu after the Islamists took control of the capital city. In 2001, Putzel earned his BA from Connecticut College where he produced his first documentary, Left Behind, about AIDS orphans in Kenya. Left Behind earned 16 international film awards, including the Student Academy Award, Student Emmy, HBO Films Award, and the International Documentary Association David Wolper Award. Originally from Washington, D.C., Putzel currently lives in San Francisco with his fiancé. Left Behind
Annie Goeke is a leader in the Greens and Peace movement worldwide, a community activist, and Co-Director of Earth Rights Institute. Annie is presently working with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and other African nations in ecological community development, humanitarian aid and earth rights economic policies. She has co-founded an international peace organization, taught educators on peace building and is involved with initiating a new international program developing the criteria and certification for sustainable development, author + work on a TV series on 'how to live green'. Earth Rights Institute