The national field team for USA TODAY distributed 30,000 posters and flyers to 500 leading campuses across the U.S. in the recent weeks. Here's the poster art:

Opening the Q&A to the 125+ students at the FYI Film Your Issue panel at George Washington University by soliciting their feedback on their generation’s engagement or apathy, a student rose and proclaimed angrily and vehemently how much he “hates” the way the media portrays his generation as apathetic.

The common refrain of students at the campus events is resentment at being compared unfavorably to their parents, the baby boomers, in terms of engagement.

“We’re just as interested, we care just as much, we do just as much,” is the rallying cry. The message is that in today’s fractured media, the young adults see their own actions as viable as the large, massive protests that were reported a generation ago.

“We do things in smaller ways,” said one student, while another pointed out that everyone she knows “volunteers their time.”

Another student articulated a broad-based cynicism or mistrust that personal action makes much of a difference, pointing to the fact that despite the opposition to the War in Iraq, the government was still planning to send more troops.

Clay Warren, Chauncey M. Depew Professor of Communication, Communications Program, George Washington University, which co-hosted the evening, countered that he “truly hopes the prevailing opinion among youth is NOT “Our means of making change don’t make change,” as stated by the student.

The on-stage panelists were Clay Warren; Mary McClelland, Field Director, Young Voter Strategies; Mark Jenkins, contributor, NPR All Things Considered, The Washington Post; Mary Beth Marklein, Education Reporter, USA TODAY; and FYI president HeathCliff Rothman, who moderated the panel.

Mary Beth Marklein quoted from a study that indicated that voting, a form of activism, had indeed risen in the last election for young adults.

The theme of the panel was “Expressing Your Issue in the Digital Age,” a free, dynamic look at contemporary social activism in a new media landscape of the internet and technological advances which puts filmmaking easily into the hands of everyone.

After the hour-long discussion, students remained for Children of Men, donated by Universal Pictures.

With a strong "industry" presence on the panel at American University, the focus of the discussion was the popularity of documentaries, the effectiveness and viability of various lengths for the films and what issues were being tackled (and not tackled).

The theme of the panels for FYI 2007 is "Expressing Your Issue in the Digital Age," a free, dynamic look at contemporary social activism in a new media landscape of the internet and technological advances which puts filmmaking easily into the hands of everyone.

The panelists were Charlene Gilbert, Associate Professor, School of Communications, American University; Patricia Finneran, Festival Director, Silverdocs; Carol Bidault de l'Isle, Executive Director & Founder, Washington, DC Independent Film Festival (which was opening the next day!); Stephen Nemeth, President, Rhino Films and founder, Amnesty International Films; Jan Brown, Director of Educational Resources, USA TODAY; and FYI president HeathCliff Rothman, who moderated.

This round, after showing the winners from last round, and giving each panelist an opportunity to give an opening statement about the subject, we opened the floor to the students by asking their perspective on how engaged and activist they were, and their peers, relative to the press reports about supposed apathy.

One student said that she was no less activist than legendary baby boomers, but active in a different way. Another student said there was so much media coming at her, and options, it was overwhelming.

The animated, provocative discussion ran for 75 minutes before we had to stop, in order to show our scheduled feature, Children of Men.

We are still putting together our itinerary for the national tour of college campuses, where we will screen the winners of FYI 2006, host a panel on "Expressing Your Issue in the Digital Age" and present a current studio film of social consciousnessness, Children of Men, courtesy of partner Universal Pictures. (Universal is sponsoring a Summer 2007 internship in the production department of Universal to a winning FYI finalist who is registered for fall 2007 at an accredited school). So far events are scheduled at American University in Washington, D.C., the Best Buy campus in Minneapolis, MN, University of Colorado in Boulder, and others being finalized in New York City; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Pasadena, California.

HeathCliff Rothman and Mandy Moore talk about FYI today on Air America's Ecotalk in an interview with Daniel Hinerfeld of the NRDC:

 

Jumpcut's Mike Folgner and Steve Weibel have posted a blog entry about our trip to Park City on the Yahoo! Yodel Anecdotal blog.

Last year, FYI Film Your Issue 2006 launched during film festival season in Park City with two informal coffeehouse receptions in the afternoon.

This year, FYI Film Your Issue came back to Park City in style — and with a crew of twenty!



We had a joint Yahoo! - Jumpcut - FYI camera crew cruising Main Street asking Sundance Film Festival attendees "What's Your Issue?", and posting responses on the Yahoo! - Jumpcut website. Check out some of the person-on-the-street footage at Jumpcut.com.



We also had our talented winners with us — Benjamin Snow, Kurt Lustgarten, Molly Conners, Gabriel Veenendaal, Brian Gonzales, Tim Leaton and Scott Hamann — as well as their films to present to the media and film industry at a Starz-hosted cocktail reception launching FYI 2007 at Cafe Terigo on Main Street on Sunday, January 19. (The co-hosts were USA TODAY and Yahoo! Jumpcut).

Our Special Guests included actor-social entrepreneur Kevin Bacon, who spoke to the crowd spontaneously about his transforming the "Six Degrees of Separation" concept from a joke into a powerful tool to manifest change on the planet — which is interesting because it's all of our challenge to turn the tools we have at our disposal — including our own talents, passions and unique perspective — into ways to help the planet, and on our journey!

Actor-singer Mandy Moore, who along with Kevin Bacon joined the VIP Jury of FYI, shared her own passion for environmental issues, including driving a Prius whose engine she had converted to run on soybean oil.

Netflix guru Ted Sarandos told the crowd how proud he was for Netflix to be a partner of FYI — Film Your issue, and Michael Ruggiero, content chief for Starz, which hosted the party, echoed those sentiments.



For the first time ever in Park City during festival season, the United Nations Department of Public Information sent an envoy to speak to the film community as a FYI Film Your Issue partner on the power of film to impact social consciousness on a global platform. Our Special Guest Yvonne Acosta, U.N. Goodwill Ambassador Liaison, told the crowd how the United Nations was working with FYI - Film Your Issue to enroll young adults globally to the competition, and is supplying archival film footage for use by filmmakers.

The Awards Ceremony for FYI 2007 will take place at the United Nations on Tuesday, June 26, in New York City, again hosted by USA TODAY.

Daniel Hinerfeld and Kathy Bauch, communication heads of the Natural Resources Defense Council and The Humane Society of the United States respectively, also shared with the gathering their organizational support for FYI, and the larger vision of Film and Social Consciousness, which had brought all of us to the Sundance Film Festival!

Of course we can't leave out Ed Cassidy, the charismatic Vice President of USA TODAY, who spoke to the crowd about his company — the large newspaper in America — and its enthusiasm for FYI - Film Your Issue. This isn't spin to say that USA TODAY has been an amazing enthusiastic partner, from its campus street teams to education division to events marketing and advertising division.

Red letter day! FYI - Film Your Issue was launched today jointly by FYI Film Your Issue and the internet global platform partner Yahoo! Read the press release.