Help make a difference by making a movie. The YouTube Video Volunteers program gets users to help raise awareness for causes you care about and compete for recognition of your work on the YouTube homepage.

Each month, the channel will feature a different relevant issue on the Video Volunteers channel with a new guest curator. This month the issue is hunger, so YouTube is seeking submissions of homemade videos about organizations that are working to address hunger in America. Submit your under-three-minute video by November 21 to get a chance for a spot on the YouTube homepage. The top three videos will be featured at the end of the month.

To get you inspired, check out this video David Arquette made for the program:

Glenn Beck is almost always frustrating to watch.  And while I try not to post about too often because it seems like it would just be giving him more of a platform, I was so enraged by his rant on vegetarianism and Meatless Mondays last week that I couldn’t help but respond with a post.

Well, I’ve calmed down a bit since then but I couldn’t hide my joy at Jon Stewart’s clever and right on Glenn Beck impersonation from last night’s Daily Show.  In the skit Stewart takes on the subject of Glenn Beck’s recent appendicitis and uses it to show how ridiculous Beck is night after night after night.

It might just be the perfect segment to get your weekend started right.

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Going into Howard Hawks’ Hatari! at BAM this past Wednesday night I had a feeling I would like it.  I mean the film’s description is kind of amazing:

“John Wayne has never been better than as the leader of a pack of big-game hunters on the African plains who tackle rhinoceroses, elephants, and giraffes to sell to American zookeepers. Hawks’ late-career masterpiece is funny, tender, and thrilling, with some truly awesome scenes of capturing wild animals.”

However, even knowing that I was going to really enjoy the film, I was still surprised by  how much I truly really loved it.  Simply put Hatari! is kind of like hanging out with great old friends for 2.5 hours with occasional bursts of action and animal capturing.  Wayne, Red Buttons and the entire crew are warm, funny and make you want to be a part of their world.  And that world is where we get to the issue part of this post, capturing animals to be put in zoos. Read the rest of this entry >>

One of my favorite films at this year’s New York Film Festival, Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon, was something I was really surprised to like as much as I did.  I thought I might appreciate but I never guessed that I would enjoy it as much as I did, despite the pessimism inherently in the film, it is fascinating to watch. From my review this past October: Read the rest of this entry >>

If you live in NYC you may want to consider attending the Robin Hood Food for Good event to help feed New Yorkers in need. Through Robin Hood’s partnership with FreshDirect, a $50 donation provides a family of eight with a turkey and all the fixings. Your donation also includes entrance to this event, an open bar and entertainment. So not only will you get to go to a good party, you’ll also do good by helping those in need. And if you don’t live in NYC or can’t attend the event, you can still help feed a family by donating online.

Last year, Robin Hood invested $4.3 million in soup kitchens and food pantries in New York City and now, in this recession, the need is even greater. At Robin Hood, 100% of your donation goes directly to programs helping poor New Yorkers and every dollar you give will be matched dollar for dollar thanks to a matching grant. Dollar for dollar! That’s amazing.

The 2010 Cinema Eye Honors Nominees have been named and I am very very happy to report that The Cove has received a record-tying 7 nominations! It got nominations in the Production, Cinematography, Editing, Original Score, Debut Feature and the top prize, Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking categories.

Also exciting is the fact that Food, Inc joins The Cove in the Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking, Original Score and the Audience Choice categories and picked up another nomination for Graphic Design and Animation!

The entire list of nominations is below–I’m of course rooting for The Cove and Food, Inc but also for the wonderful Agnes Varda in the directing category (one of the only categories where The Cove and Food, Inc were not nominated) for her beautiful film The Beaches of Agnes.

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Google is starting to promote its Dashboard feature--a tool that tells you what Google knows about you and in some ways seems to address any privacy concerns that folks might have.  It takes the Google applications you use and lists how you use it and what information you have stored (always a good thing to know and to think about). Give a watch to the video below.

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My second film in my Yesterday’s Films, Today’s Issues series is going to be another Elia Kazan film (there was recently a Kazan retro in NYC).  Kazan’s Wild River is a beautiful film starring Lee Remick and Montgomery Clift as a young Tennessee woman named Carol and a government agent named Chuck sent in to get Carol’s grandmother off of her river property so that they can build a dam. With that basic plotline though Kazan has created a subtle story about eminent domain and land-use.

The film begins with footage of the flooding of the Tennessee River and an explanation of the Tennessee Valley Authority and how they were authorized to build a new dam to stop the flooding.   And with that authorization TVA was required to get the folks living on the river out of their homes. Clift’s Chuck is a TVA official from D.C. and he comes to Tennessee with the task of removing Carol’s grandmother Ella Garth from her home on a small island in the middle of the river.   Ms. Garth does not want to be removed from the only home she has ever known though and refuses to leave voluntary. Read the rest of this entry >>

Even with the election not being as big or as exciting as last years there were some interesting and important results.  However, I am hard pressed to believe that 2-3 results at all reflect the country as a whole or some large scale change–that is just politics and spin my friends.

And it seems Jon Stewart agrees with me on this, which means I must be right.  See below for his post-election coverage, including a look at the gay marriage results. And for an added bonus interview with TakePart hero Al Gore.  In his interview he discusses his new book Our Choice, the follow-up to the book that inspired that movie, An Inconvenient Truth.

I don’t know about you but listening to Al Gore always inspires me to be a better citizen!