Colonial Hosts Free Screening of Pangea Day
PITTSFIELD – The world comes to the big-screen at the Colonial theater on Sunday, May 10, as part of Pangea Day.Pangea Day is designed to create global connections through the medium of film.
The Colonial, in conjunction wit the Barka Foundation of Housatonic, will screen the 24 short films and six live broadcasts for Pangea Day from 2 to 6 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
The events start at 1 in the Colonial lobby with the announcement of Barka and Pathways to Peace's plans to develop the Barka Burkina Consortium, a collection of nongovernmental organizations, nonprofits, educational institutions and businesses, to help help achieve the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals in Burkina Faso by 2015.
The goals are to eradicate poverty worldwide. Burkina Faso, a small country in West Africa, is the third poorest in the world and is the area of Barka's primary focus for humanitarian work with regard. The consortium hopes to create a model for achieving MDGs that can be used elsewhere.
"The Colonial theater is proud to be a founding partner of the Barka Burkina Consortium. Our primary focus is to serve the people of the Berkshires. But we are conscious of the larger leadership role all service organizations play in inspiring people through their actions," said David Fleming, the Colonial's executive director.
Through a partnership with Emerging Pictures, the Colonial will broadcast the Pangea Day program that includes films, speakers and music aimed at strengthening tolerance and compassion while uniting millions of people to build a better future. Together with sites in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai and Rio de Janeiro, the Colonial will be a place for the community to gather to celebrate this historic event.
The screening is made possible with special support from Time Warner Cable.
The first step for the Barka Burkina Consortium is literally to Walk for Water, a fundraising event by the Berkshire community to collect the $7,000 required to drill the first well in a drought-stricken area of Burkina Faso. The 3-mile walk, also sponsored by the Colonial, Monument Mountain High School, Railroad Street Youth Project, GreenAgers, Center for Peace through Culture and Pathways to Peace is designed to create awareness about issues of water scarcity worldwide. Students in schools throughout Berkshire County have been asked to join the effort.
"Clean water for all is a good first step to achieving the MDGs. It is wonderful that the work of the consortium can begin here in the Berkshires through wide community support to drill this first well in Burkina Faso,” said Michael Johnson, Monterey resident and U.N. representative for Pathways to Peace.
The walk is open to all community members in exchange for a donation of any amount.
Starting at 9 a.m. at the former Searles Middle School, 79 Bridge St., Great Barrington, the walk will go to Lake Mansfield for live drumming and speakers. Women in parts of Africa walk an average of 6 miles carrying jugs of 40 pounds water on their heads to their families every day. At the Walk for Water, there will be a 40-pound container of water for participants to jointly carry to Lake Mansfield and back.
For further information, contact Monument student Emilyn Bona at 413-269-6543. Donation forms and information kits can be downloaded from www.thecolonialtheatre.org/PangeaDay.
To make a tax-deductible donation, contact Ina and Esu Anahata, co-founders of the Barka Foundation at 413-528-3360.
