by Theresa Soares

Ankur Singh is an 18 year old college freshman at The University of Missouri – Columbia who is planning to take off his second semester of school to create a documentary film about standardized testing in America. The film is tentatively titled “Listen,” and focuses on what students themselves have to say about testing culture in the United States.

“But, it’s also so much more than that.” Says Ankur, “It’s about how magnificent our generation is and the amazing incredible things we do every single day that go unrecognized by our education.”

The inspiration for the project comes from his personal story which was featured in Valerie Strauss’s Answer Sheet for the Washington post this past November. A complete version of the story can be found on the film’s website, and is titled: “Who am I and why should you care about this silly documentary?”

Theresa Soares

Since the publishing of his personal story the film has attracted quite a bit of attention. Singh has plans to interview and film a variety of school districts, student groups, and parent groups from around the country, including Colorado, Texas, Florida, New York, and California.  In a recent interview Singh explained that he is looking to feature a diverse group of voices, “For example, a student who’s been subjected to institutionalized racism perpetuated by the tests and our education system, a student whose true passions and talents are being ignored, a student whose learning style is different, or maybe a student who lives in poverty.” In a recent phone interview, Singh mentioned that his focus for the film isn’t “political, it’s human.”

The filming will take place between January-May 2013, with a projected release date of fall 2013 or winter 2014. He has plans to also submit the film to a variety of different film festivals. There are less than 9 days left for the funding campaign held on Kickstarter. With a goal of just $2,000 the project is a little over a quarter of the way there. Funding generated from the film’s Kickstarter campaign will go towards travel expenses.

For more information about the film, or if you would like to get involved with the project: Email: listenthefilm@gmail.com or call 309-838-4265. For the latest film updates follow the project on Facebook and Twitter.

The official Film Website can be found at: http://listenthefilm.wordpress.com/. To support the film on Kickstarter, please visit: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ankursingh/listen-0

Theresa Soares is a maturing journalist, narrator, storyteller, and dyslexic. She entered her professional career as one of the youngest women ever to be hired by the United States Department of the Navy. After two years at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey California, she joined The Harry Singer Foundation in Carmel California where she provides support for philanthropic research and development. Theresa is a student at Mills College in California where she is studying journalism and intermedia arts. Currently, she is covering organic public interest radio reporting in the Oakland Unified School District. Her interests range from dyslexia and neurodiversity advocacy to empowering student and minority voices within education. Follow her on twitter @Theresa_Soares.

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And now the makers of the film First Orbit, having seen the remarkable popularity of the project, are asking the world to help them translate the film into as many languages as possible.

A pioneer in post digital film production and distribution, producer Chris Riley, chair of Science and Media at the University of Lincoln (UK), harnessed the power of crowd sourcing to generate over 1,600 premiere screenings for First Orbit in more than 130 countries in April, making First Orbit one of the most widely premiered independent films in history.

“At this time, we received multiple requests for the film in different languages, but didn’t have the resources to supply it with anything other than English subtitles”, recalls Riley. “So in preparation for future anniversary screenings around the world we’d like to tap into this international, multilingual community of fans, which the project generated, to translate First Orbit into as many languages as possible.”

Riley believes that this will be the first time that Gagarin’s full Vostok 1 mission transcript will have been translated into multiple languages, making it even more accessible to scholars and space exploration history fans for generations to come.

His ‘viral’ call to action, to translate the film into as many languages as possible, was announced today at the International Astronautical Congress, Cape Town, to the largest annual assembly of space professionals on Earth. Anyone wishing to help can download a transcript of the entire film from www.firstorbit.org/join-us.

The following call to action statement from Chris Riley was delivered to congress by Professor Chris Welch, of the International Space University (ISU), Strasbourg, France and one of the principal collaborators on First Orbit, as part of a First Orbit analysis presentation:

“The words Yuri Gagarin spoke when orbiting the earth in 1961 are so very important to the history of humankind that they should be accessible to as many people on Earth as possible. With your help we aim to ‘virally crowd-source’ the translation of the film into as many languages as possible and have chosen to launch this call to action at the 2011 International Astronautical Congress in the hope that, with your help, we can reach the widest possible audience.” Chris Riley, Director and Producer, First Orbit.

The First Orbit viral experiential premiere event generated 1600 public screenings in more than 130 countries around the world, and attracted over two million viewings on YouTube within the first 48 hours, making it the most watched long form film release in YouTube history.

”Internet driven film distribution has given us an opportunity to make direct connections with audiences across the world. Now it’s their chance to get involved with the next stage of this unique project. I can’t wait to see how many translations we receive back.”

First Orbit was made in collaboration with the European Space Agency and the Expedition 25 through 27 crews of the International Space Station.

The film ‘First Orbit’ was created by matching the orbital path of the International Space Station, as closely as possible, to that of Gagarin’s Vostok 1 spaceship.

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