An Amazing Pangea Day

   

Sunrise Advisors was thrilled to take part in the San Francisco Pangea Day celebration held at Architecture for Humanity in downtown SF. Several hundred people gathered to watch the live 4-hour screening, which was shared with over 1,000 screenings, events, and parties throughout the world. In 2006, filmmaker Jehane Noujaim won the TED Prize, an annual award granted at the TED Conference. She was granted $100,000, and more important, a wish to change the world. Her wish was to create a day in which the world came together through film. Pangea Day grew out of that wish. 24 short films were selected from an international competition that generated over 2500 submissions from over 100 countries. We found them amusing, entertaining, at times heart wrenching, and throughout, fulfilling exactly what they set out to - making us feel connected to humanity through our experiences, emotions, and the details of daily living. Perhaps the expression, "I laughed so hard I cried," was never so fitting for this occasion. 

from the Pangea Day home page....

"Pangea Day's fabulous line-up of thought-provoking, inspirational speakers produced no less stellar a collection of memorable quotes and priceless bits of wisdom. A small sampling of what we heard:


"By sharing stories, we've started the process of turning strangers into friends." - Filmmaker Jehane Noujaim, TED Prize winner and founder of Pangea Day

"We have a repsonbility to expose ourselves to our world, to see our common humanity, to learn about other people -- not only in times of war, but in times of peace. " - Ishmael Beah, former child soldier and advocate for peace

"When we look at the earth from space, we can see ourselves, our species, in its brave struggle. Yes, we're troubled inhabitants of a small planet, but we're also dreamers of dreams." - Planetary scientist Carolyn Porco

"Humans are -- and must be -- sensitive to differences. But we should find hope in realizing how rich and numerous our commonalities are." - Anthropologist Donald Brown, author of Human Universals

"If we are to prosper together in our increasingly small world, we must listen to -- and learn from each other's stories" - Queen Noor of Jordan

"When we laugh, we change. And when we change, the world changes." -- Dr. Madan Kataria, founder of the International Laughter Club

"I feel like a hack... I feel I could be doing more... I feel sexy... I just want to feel alive for the first time in my life... I feel so much of my Dad in me that there isn't room for me." -- A selection of feelings, sampled live from the Internet, by conceptual artist Jonathan Harris

"We have the capacity and tendency to separate 'us' from 'them.' Once established, we're more tolerant to those we call 'us' and more brutal toward 'them.' But increasingly, science shows there's no limit to who we define as 'us.' Eventually, someday, there might not be any more 'thems.'" - Psychologist Robert Kurzban

"How can films change the world? They can't, but the people who watch them can. By changing minds, we change the world." - Actress Cameron Diaz