From: Chris Farina

It’s been a while since the last newsletter due to work on a new educational documentary film. We just wrapped up the filming on a unique university class which brings together university students with juvenile prison residents as they meet on a weekly basis to discuss classic works of Russian Literature. It is truly a transformative experience for both sets of students.

Here’s a link to the first press article on the film: http://news.virginia.edu/content/celebrated-filmmaker-preparing-documentary-popular-uva-course

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Much like our previous film “World Peace and other 4th-Grade Achievements” about educator John Hunter and his World Peace Game (an update on that work is below), this project features another innovative educator, Professor Andrew Kaufman, whose compassion guides his work to positively change the lives of each of the class’s participants. Our goal is to have the film be a tool for supporting and expanding Kaufman’s work, along with inspiring other educators around the world to consider replicating this type of educational model in their own communities.

We do need financial support to continue this work as we need additional funding to begin the film’s edit. For more information about the project, please visit

http://fiscal.ifp.org/project.cfm/710/Books-Behind-Bars/

Other good news – Our short film “The Holistic Life Foundation: breathing love into a community”, about the wonderful work of the three founders of HLF in their hometown of west Baltimore, bringing the benefits of mindfulness into a poor urban neighborhood will be featured in the Illuminate Film Festival http://illuminatefilmfestival.com, on Friday June 2nd. This film has already been screened at the Richmond International Film Festival, the Baltimore International Black Film Festival, the Say it Loud Film Festival, and the In a Perfect World Social Change Film Festival (where it won the Audience Award). Here’s a link to the 4-minute trailer. https://rosaliafilms.com/holistic-life-foundation-breathing-love-into-a-community/

Click below to find out more about Illuminate.

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World Peace and other 4th-Grade Achievements – The work of John Hunter and the World Peace Game Foundation continues to expand internationally. In April, John taught the Game to children while concurrently leading a Masterclass of teachers in Austria (a return visit), Croatia, and Denmark (co-hosted by the US Embassy in Copenhagen). This past year new World Peace Games have been conducted by teachers taught by John throughout the US, as well as in Europe, Mali, Japan and Mexico. Future Masterclasses for children and teachers in 2016 will be held in Charlottesville, Virginia, Corvallis, Oregon and Prague, Czech Republic, with planning in the work for other locations. Here’s a link to John’s presentation by the TED Radio Hour http://www.npr.org/2016/05/06/476588150/how-can-we-teach-children-to-create-a-hopeful-future

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For more information about the World Peace Game and John Hunter, please visit www.worldpeacegame.org. If you’d like to watch World Peace and other 4th-Grade Achievements, you can purchase a dvd through http://www.theconnextion.com/rosaliafilms/rosaliafilms_index.cfm, or stream or download through https://vimeo.com/ondemand/60062

Thanks you for your interest and support in our films as we attempt to affect true positive change.