If you need a pick me up, I happen to think this is quite catchy!

Last week, Laura Sahramaa wrote a blog about the connections between documentary media and social change as witnessed through the documentaries An Inconvenient Truth and Sicko. As a huge documentary fanatic (especially those aimed at creating social change) & aspiring documentarian, I wanted to highlight a couple of examples of simple, online videos made by the YouTube generation that are aimed at social change, if only to prove the point that you don't have to have a major movie studio or a distribution plan to pick up a video camera and start making some waves in your community.

Watch for plenaries and official Summit videos soon on the YP4 YouTube channel.

(hat-tip Open Left)

Wow, how did these fellows end up on YouTube. Check them out.

Who's that letter B?

As BionicBoy mentioned, college costs continue to skyrocket, fast outpacing inflation, discouraging graduates from pursuing lower-paying careers in the education and nonprofit sectors, and dissuading many would-be college students from applying.

But there's some hope!

Watch the video and share your tips below

Karl Rove has resigned in disgrace.

Two weeks after being issued a Senate subpoena -- and one week after Campaign for America's Future (with the help of Jason Alexander) unveiled "Rovemort" as the dark force orchestrating rampant obstruction of progressive solutions -- Karl Rove cut-and-run from a White House in crisis.

Last Friday the second annual Battle Cry for a Generation two-day mega rock-concert/pep rally occurred at SBC park in San Francisco. Over all 25,000 evangelical youth from around the country gathered to protest the "virtue terrorism" of pop culture.

As described by the anti-Bush advocacy organization the World Can't Wait "BattleCry is a Christian fascist youth movement.  It is led by politically powerful theocrats who prey on the fears, search for meaning, and moral dilemmas that are facing today's youth.  They claim their religion and values are under attack, but it is BattleCry - and the intolerant theocratic movement they are part of - that has declared war on everyone else!  They are raising an army of youth to conquer the world and impose a theocracy where their hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism is made law."

Joseph La Sac, a student from the University of Puget Sound was harassed on camera by police officers for (completely legally) filming an antiwar protest against Stryker brigades moving through Tacoma on their way to Iraq.

I'm also posting a video of the antiwar protest itself, taken by Zoltan Grossman, a professor at The Evergreen State College.

These videos tell us two things.  First of all, the antiwar movement certainly is not dead.  Second of all, video can be an incredibly powerful witness to our struggles.  Thoughts?  What direction should the antiwar movement be taking?    

Check out the videos out after the jump.  

Show your support to the women in Iran!

Reprint:
Feminist Daily News Wire
March 9, 2007
More Women's Rights Activities in Iran
Women's rights activists in Iran participated in protests yesterday commemorating International Women's Day, despite recent detainments of Iranian feminists. News sources are offering conflicting reports of yesterday's activities. The Los Angeles Times reports that about 50 peaceful protestors were "quickly confronted and overwhelmed by riot police, including dozens of young female officers wearing bright green uniforms with red stripes." Eight women and two men were reportedly arrested, and several protestors sustained beatings, according to the Los Angeles Times. Reuters and the Inter Press Service, however, report that several hundred activists attended the protest outside of the Iranian parliament and were attacked by police, though no one was seriously hurt nor arrested.