The World's Story is Yours to Tell
Mel Orpen's Page
Profile Information
- Name of Organization, Institution, Company, or School:
- I founded Aikfilm, a production company focused on projects that educate, inspire, and empower us to be the change we wish to see in the world. When I am not producing and directing my own project, I work as an Assistant Director on feature films in the US. I produced and directed "It Gets Better--Philly's Video" the collaborative community film project that was the basis for our 10/10/10 submission. I also produced "Faggist.com: The birth of America's first social netwerk" a comedy satire short film that premiered at Philadelphia's Qfest (2010).
- Focus of Study/axe de l'étude/foco de estudio
- I studied English and Medieval Studies while playing 2 varsity division I sports and working my way through Princeton University.
- What languages do you speak?
- Engilsh, some French and a smattering in several other languages
- What did you film on 12.12.12?
- I like to document people who are living their passions especially artists, activists, and advocates who take action in support of equality for all people and those who stands for equal rights.
In our submission to One Day on Earth, we attended and documented Philly Outfest, a yearly street festival in Philadelphia, PA, USA that celebrates the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, and Allied communities. We filmed and interviewed street vendors, artists, social organizations, musical performances, local politicians and attendees.
From this we later created "It Gets Better--Philly's Video" as a part of the It Gets Better Project, an international project designed to send messages of hope and support to queer youth and promote a culture of more inclusive identity acceptance for all young people around the globe where bullying is not longer tolerated at any level.
Our submission features Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter as he becomes the first US mayor to raise the rainbow flag of diversity and equality for all over a US City Hall, as well as interviews from more than 57 individuals--lgbt identified and their allies, and could not have been accomplished without the support of many many others beyond counting.
We also invited President Barak Obama to participate in our project and while he was unable to appear that day, he created his own It Gets Better Project video just 10 days later to become the first US President to publicly support lgbt inclusive rights and equality.
Shortly thereafter, the ban on openly lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgendered people serving in the US military was lifted.
We'd like to think that it was in part the tremendous public awareness and support created by our video and other It Gets Better Project videos like ours that supported this tremendous shift in support of equality in our country.
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Hi Mel Orpen, Nice to meet you. I can read and speak English, so you don't need to worry Chinese.
I am interested in the Bullying project. If you have any ideas, please let me know. Thanks.
Iris