On Monday, I attended an exclusive screening of Playground, a documentary about child sex trafficking directed by Libby Spears (producers include George Clooney and Steven Sodorbergh). It was the film’s first screening in Toronto, however the documentary has received critical acclaim at film festivals around the world.
The screening marked the launch of The Body Shop’s Stop S*x Trafficking of Children & Young People campaign for 2010. Last year, The Body Shop, in partnership with ECPAT in Canada, Beyond Borders and the Somaly Mam Foundation, raised over $400,000 to help raise awareness and stop human trafficking through the sale of their Soft Hands, Kind Heart Hand Cream.
I wish I could give you info about where you can view this important film, but there are no details thus far about public screenings for Playground.
In the meantime, here’s how you can help:
(1) Raise awareness by visiting www.playgroundproject.com to view an excerpt from Playground and referring friends and family to the site as well.
(2) Raise money by picking up a tube (or two) of Soft Hands, Kind Heart Hand Cream ($10) at The Body Shop. $6 goes directly to Beyond Borders.
(3) Buy the new Bag for Life ($5), too — and $2 will go to the Somaly Mam Foundation.
March 17, 2010
Finally tuned into the new free podcast Spilled Milk, which is hosted by Molly Wizenberg (of Orangette blog fame) and Matthew Amster-Burton (author of Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father’s Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater) and if you love food and eating (and, OK, cooking — for me, the cooking is just a means to get to the eating) as much as I do, you’ll love this podcast, too.
Each podcast they focus on a particular food or cooking method, and the hosts have great rapport. And Spilled Milk has already opened my eyes to a good many things:
(1) to showcase a food, fry it (I like how Matthew thinks).
(2) I’ve never had a chocolate malt milkshake — add that to my to-eat list. I’ve had a date milkshake in Palm Springs, but not a chocolate malt milkshake.
(3) our hands feel gnarly when chopping a butternut squash because of a resin that causes dermatitis reaction.
Tune in (but not if you’ve skipped breakfast, as I had, or you might be on the subway at 8 a.m. seriously considering consuming an entire pack of gum as your first meal of the day).
March 11, 2010
Just discovered the website Someone Once Told Me — my friend Maryam was featured on it this week (that’s her here) — and I’m loving it, the idea that “we are all shaped by the things someone once told us,” as illustrated by black and white photographs submitted by people around the world featuring their SOTM message.
March 11, 2010
In the meantime, here’s how you can help:
