This is a well-done progfessional film that suceeded in telling a beautiful story about the school.

We at Cinemocracy would like to set straight any confusion regarding the film “A Vision of Democracy.”  Several points should be made:
1.    Peak to Peak Pictures was not hired by The Anchor Center for the Blind.  The film “A Vision of Democracy” was solely produced by Peak to Peak Pictures.
2.    Peak to Peak Pictures did not violate any rules, nor the spirit of this competition.
3.    The social networking used to market the film “A Vision of Democracy” did not violate any rules of the competition.
We are happy to announce that “A Vision of Democracy” screened at the public event at Red Rocks on August 25th.  Thank you to everyone interested in this competition.

And yet another inaccessible film to those who are deaf or hard of hearing.

From the Filmmaker

Dear Friends,
We made this film as an attempt to inject an optimistic view of democracy to the Cinemocracy.org competition (and hopefully gain some positive attention for my production company, Peak to Peak Pictures). I had a wonderful experience and learned a great deal. I’m so grateful to Anchor Center for Blind Children for allowing me in to film the amazing work they do there. Everyone who walks thru their doors embodies the courage, commitment and compassion that are the foundation of our great democracy. It made me feel extremely proud to be a citizen.

For the record:
1.) As was stated by the great staff at Cinemocracy.org we did not violated any rules or the spirit of the competition in any way.
2.) We made this submission specifically for this competition.
3.) Though it was posted after the extension of the due date, it was ready before. (Since I was using a new editing program, I used the extension to try to find a way to compress it without losing its aspect ratio or resolution. In the end, I just went ahead and posted it, as is.)
4.) I have no contract with Anchor Center, they didn't pay me anything, and they had no say over the final edit. I am completely responsible for the outcome, whatever your thoughts are of it.
5.) The only people that worked on this film were me, my friend Ali (who was the main editor) and my friend Carol whose vision it was to begin with. No sponsors, no budget, no elaborate crew. I even had to borrow a camera from my friend Tim since mine was getting repaired.
5.) Like many others who entered the contest, I am a local filmmaker who is excited that I got a venue to show something I made. I have no sinister motivations for posting this film here.

Many thanks to everyone who has voted for us and all your kind words of support. I feel so honored. Congratulations to all the other filmmakers also!

Sincerely,
Jenn

PS Check out the other film I have posted that was made by the 3rd thru 5th graders from my after-school film class:

http://www.cinemocracy.org/video/democracy-defined

I’m so proud of them!

I am amazed at the lack of thought here.

Especially this fool "mike." There's no such thing as a mistake here, come on this is for an entire city, for the Democratic National Convention. Do you really think that was a vulnerability?

You may be right. I'm not sure if this is true or not, but maybe, for a time, it could have been possible to register fraudulent votes by simply clicking a button hundreds of times, if you merely blocked your browser's cookies. Do you really thing that was an accident? Do you really think these organizers are so clueless? They would have removed this video in a heartbeat, maybe even had the filmmakers arrested, for taking the bait.

If your vulnerability story is true, then these are the smartest site administrators I've ever seen. They can test your honesty in a heartbeat. yeah, I'm an IT pro, but these people must work for the FBI.

That proves without a doubt, this film definitely did not cheat.

What a gift - thank you for sharing the vision of your organization - I am stunned by some of the narrow ideas of what democracy is - what is democracy but the seed of free ideas, free thought, freewill, and this is what you are teaching the students at the Anchor Center for Blind Children - thanks for your commitment!

I find all of the negative comments here to be a sign of insecurity and jelousy. Can you do better? If so, prove it or keep quiet. Anyone who submits to this or any other site with original work, has more to offer than those of you who feel you must critisize. In Texas, we call this "liitle man (or woman) syndrome". The best way to prove yourself to the world is by opening up and showing your talents and work to the rest of the world. So for all of you who feel it necessary to critisize and express negativity towards someone else's original work, prove you can do open up to the world and put your work out there for all to see. Let the rest of us critisize you.

From Cinemocracy ourselves:

We just wanted to let everyone know that no evidence of impropriety has been found.

I'm going to come straight out and say that I am a Delta Gamma from Denver and I voted on this movie, ranked it highly, and was interested in watching other films as well until I saw the barrage of whiny complaints about cheating that followed it. Yes, Delta Gamma is a national network with hundreds of thousands of members in the US and Canada. Do you really think it's that hard to get 2,000 votes from a group of women that large? And there is nothing un-democratic about asking someone to support your work and them doing it. All of your complaints are completely self-interested, and you are more concerned about your idea of creative and democratic genius than the work that went into this film. This contest is about films and democracy, and there is no fine print about it needing to be cutting edge, underground, or entertaining. Giving aid to underrepresented groups and treating them like members of society is the epitome of good democracy at work, and I'm sorry that so many people, DGs or not, agreed with that idea and voted accordingly. Your attitude about winning and losing and your pretentious and outspoken views on what constitutes a democratic message are ruining this competition.

It is ironic (and exceptionally sad) to me that the controversy surrounding this film (and a few others) has become so unpleasant, much like the political process of the past several years.

This is a contest, a competition. Everyone is going to think his or her work is better. Everyone is going to believe he or she deserves to win or why else participate. Maybe I am naive, but I cannot believe that someone would cheat or would use this contest as a forum to simply further a program. That would be down right cynical.

I must confess, however, that I have my own questions with regard to the placement of this film in this forum as it seems more commercial than commentary. That said, I do not believe that the filmmakers (or by extension the folks who run the program in the film) should have such personal attacks leveled against them and others, including kids. Who are we to say that this is not a manifestation of their (the filmmakers) notion of democracy?

We've had a considerable period of time where people attack one another based on personal (and often silly) considerations. I had hoped that this competition would somehow be immune to such silliness. I am truly saddened to see that I was wrong.

I found this film from a facebook link. I think the Anchor Center is doing amazing things for kids that have a few speed bumps to face in life. People need to get over the "cheating" thing...they (Anchor Center & caring DG sisters) are marketing well.
And I am a Delta Gamma.

stop trying to find some bull****, it's obvious that no cheating is going on, everyone is just angry because someone has x more votes than them or whatever.

Well this will spoil it for the losers. Obviously CInemocracy already knows about this, they're a *little* more intelligent than some losers, I just don't want to hear any more about this load of ****, so I'll breifly lay out the facts:

PageRank IS NOT A HIT COUNTER. There, enough said.

It is a score based on how many LINKS a particular page has.
OK, say this video has one link to their website. Let's even assume that the PageRank of that site was "10." Even if 9,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 people click on the link, it is still only ONE link, and will therefore cast only "one PageRank vote" to this page, which will be pretty much near zero according to the equation on this page: http://www.webworkshop.net/pagerank.html

And some links don't count, like Facebook (about 7 pagerank). Wow, even if their link on Facebook did count, that would be only one more vote (no mater how many clicks), or 0.0000000x something according to PageRank's logarithmic scoring mechanism.

E-mail links create no link-back, Google only counts links on WEB PAGES (obviously). Again PageRank is NOT A HIT COUNTER, only the # OF LINKS are counted.

All of these fools saying "oh my god, the white bar is at zero now, this one's at least real, Anchor Center is fake, and so is everyone else's", you're just blowing smoke. "zero" is no better than "no pagerank info" if you take a look closely at the stats. Wait a minute, PR 10 is no better either, because that only tells us that the page has a lot of LINKS. This contest, to my understanding, is not about how many LINKS one has, but how many VOTES.

Ok, one of the festival organizers himself advised people to "go out and campaign for your video, and essentially your idea of democracy." Because PageRank is NOT A HIT COUNTER, none of those will count towards PR.

If this were a contest on how many links a site could get, then maybe (but not even then) Google PageRank might have some validity. In this case, the only thing PageRank tells us is that one particular video has more links than another from outside sites (more accurately, that one particular video was uploaded earlier than another, and has more links. PR is updated VERY rarely).

All of whatever I am saying is on that page. Don't believe? E-mail Google themselves.

Bottom line, it's NOT A HIT COUNTER, so it is extremely inaccurate, for this case.

Google PageRank indicated that this film has not enough viewers & raised no or very small interest. People all over the world use Google toolbar to indicate level of importance of their web sites. At this film's page Google PageRank scale is dead. It means that no visitors - fake success. Even average is 4.8, and over 1600 votes.

No one can cheat Google: power of technology.

Google PageRank indicated that this film has not enough viewers & raised no or very small interest. People all over the world use Google toolbar to indicate level of importance of their web sites. At this film's page Google PageRank scale is dead. It means that no visitors - fake success. Even average is 4.8, and over 1600 votes.

No one can cheat Google: power of technology.

Google PageRank indicated that this film has not enough viewers & raised no or very small interest. People all over the world use Google toolbar to indicate level of importance of their web sites. At this film's page Google PageRank scale is dead. It means that no visitors - fake success. Even average is 4.8, and over 1600 votes.

No one can cheat Google: power of technology.

This video opened my eyes to an inspiring program that manages to maintain optimism in the face of some stiff odds. Preparing visually impaired preschoolers for inclusion in traditional public school classrooms is laudable and should be the norm.

This movie is about equal opportunity and appreciating differences...

“As long as the differences and diversities of mankind exist, democracy must allow for compromise, for accommodation, and for the recognition of differences.” -Eugene McCarthy

“Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions - it only guarantees equality of opportunity.” -Irving Kristol

“The price of the democratic way of life is a growing appreciation of people's differences, not merely as tolerable, but as the essence of a rich and rewarding human experience.” -Jerome Nathanson

Nothing to do with democracy. Shameless, poor attempt at free advertising. Spread the link. Rate it a one. Better yet, boo it at Red Rocks.

There's too much debate over whether or not this film relates to democracy.
Obviously, the concept of democracy is fluid and I might remind those who are commenting that the theme of the submissions was posed as a question- "How do you define democracy?"
It's fascinating this has garnered so much debate, as every submission/subject matter could be debated.

What is democracy and how does it manifest itself in America? To that, this film answers the question completely.

Okay Okay Okay

Everyone take a deep breathe and give some thought about what they're arguing about. This is a preschool for blind children. The relevance to democracy is legitimate, and these schools don't exist everywhere in the world. It's one take out of many for the submissions relating to democracy. Don't get mad at the blind kids, the nice teachers at the school, or even the producer of this film. Sure, it's a little sappy, but it's a nice story. Come on, folks........

While they do lovely work, I am not sure why a marketing video for the Anchor Center is considered appropriate for this site.

Is anyone at Cinemocracy paying attention to the submissions?

Hello,

My name is Robert Florescu, and I am a 19 year old college student from Denver, CO. I will be a sophomore at the University of Denver (DU) this fall. I composed a song and made a music video that reflects the times we are living in, and uploaded it to Cinemocracy a week ago, in hopes of having the video shown at the Convention. Considering that my video uses footage from Red Rocks, it would be such an honor for my video to be publicly shown there. if my sister and I get to perform my song live at Red Rocks, that would be a dream come true for me!

My video is: http://www.cinemocracy.org/video/original-music-video-sunrise

I am in the Pioneer Leadership Program (PLP) at the University of Denver, a competitive selective program that educates students about academic and civic leadership. The program emphasizes the importance of community service. As a student who has volunteered over 200 hours throughout high school as part of International Baccalaureate and over 40 in my first year of Pioneer Leadership program I am

shocked and saddened

by the sheer number of comments accusing this organization for "cheating" or being "irrelevant."

As President of the DU Student Peace Alliance I ask of you, stop the hate. Jealousy is extremely negative and kills the soul. Instead of perpetuating negativity, and watching how many votes this video is getting, spread the word about your own videos!

-Robert

cheating

obviously.

I'm not sure what the Anchor Center has to do with democracy. It looks like they are doing great work and really helping children but I don't see this video as related to the topic. This a a fine film about an educational program but not about democracy.

It would have been interesting to see a film about the struggles of people with vision impairments and other challenges to be included in our democracy or something similar. If the point is that "only in America" do we care about children with vision problems, then this video fails completely. It would have been interesting to see some political or democratic issues addressed. Why aren't these children provided with free universal health care? Why wouldn't a sight impaired presidential candidate have a valid chance in today's America? Why aren't those with disability given a stronger voice in America? Why are those with different abilities still excluded from many parts of America?

This film is not about democracy. It's about a nice school program that helps children and families. That's sweet. That's nice. I'm sure the parents are proud. But it's not on topic. It's a commercial.

Is the point that people in other countries love their children less? Or that, only in a democracy do programs like this exist? If these are the assumptions than this film is about prejudice and ethnocentrism. Programs like this exist more in western democracies because of money and funding and not because of democracy. Americans don't love their children any more than any other people. And if Americans care so much for the disabled, why not provide all people with free universal health care?

This film is simply not about democracy. It hints that it is about the center giving these children a chance to belong. But it fails to address the reasons this group of American society has been historically excluded. And it fails to address exactly how the Anchor Center is working to change this. What laws has the Anchor Center lobbied to get passed or changed? What grass roots movement is the Anchor Center behind (other than the one to support this film)? What political change is the Anchor Center involved in? In doing so it only hints at a possible connection but doesn't deliver. I'm sorry to all the parents and children involved but this film just doesn't belong.

It still doesn't belong!...it's not even that well made. it could possibly be a commercial on PBS. it was sweet but totally boring in the creativity category. It doesn't do much to keep people's interest. It gives Anchor Center a bad name with this shameless solicitation....shame shame.

Someone wants take charge. Lets just ignore this film (gentle suggestion to cinemocracy.org)
You'll find a lot of other films that explore democracy subject there.

Hi my name is Shelly, my son attends the preschool program at Anchor Center, he is NOT a paid actor. My older son graduated from Anchor Center in 2005. They both have Albinism. They are both visually impaired and legally blind. They were both diagnosed with Albinism at birth. The person who thinks that the people on the film are paid actors needs a reality check. Look on the website of Anchor Center to know that every one at Anchor Center for Blind Children are real people. The horse was real, too!!!!
We will be at Anchor Center for 9 years.

I thought this was a film competition on democracy, this is a blatant cry for donations.

supporters ? that's OK. Film is OK too. But... not relevant = poor. This competition is about democracy. This film is about love to our children. Liberals love children toooooooo.
POOR. not matter how many votes.
We love our children. Communists too. And fashists loves their children tooo.

Everyone here is so UPSET with this whole competition being a "fraud" and being "rigged" The only reason that the Anchor Center has so many votes is because they have a vast network of Dedicated Supporters.

I am a proud supporter of The Anchor Center and I am not in any fraternal organization. I have gone as far as to fly to Denver for a fund-raising event all the way from my Home in Chicago. There is nothing wrong with a good cause asking for the support of its members and their friends no matter were they live or what fraternal organization they may belong to. Why don't we all grow up and be adults here!

Thanks!

P.S. - Keep up the GREAT work Anchor Center!!!

I love this competition and diversity of the films. I was especially impressed by this film and touched by the stories. I know of this organization and the good it does and was so surprised by the negative comments. They are a professional, caring and wonderful non-profit that cares for children and families with eyesight special needs. People need to know that is the truth.

We are in an age where anyone can comment good and bad on things. Being an American gives us this great privelidge. However, I hope that viewers can see the truth on this worthy group and the hard work they put in for the volunteers, children, parents and staff.

Congrats to the Anchor Center for their achievements and to all the video-ographers for the great cinema art.

Hellen Keller once said:
As selfishness and complaint pervert the mind, so love with its joy clears and sharpens the vision.

Good luck to all.

Stephanie J.

everyone is concentrating so much on this film why not view some of the others that really deserve to get some attention

http://www.cinemocracy.org/video/short-end-spaghetti

http://www.cinemocracy.org/video/superdelegate-girl

http://www.cinemocracy.org/video/democracy-box

http://www.cinemocracy.org/video/outcast

http://www.cinemocracy.org/video/chasing-tail

These are all REALLY worth checking out and they all deserve a vote.

OK. We've looked into this situation and here is the skinny on the film, film maker, and the relationship with Cinemocracy.

Turns out this project is funding by Big Oil and Walmart. The film makers are basically motivated by money and power. They are collaborating with capitalist monolyths to gain control of the entire Denver area and Colorado film industry. Big Oil would like control over the message of harvesting Colorado oil shale and Walmart is looking to soften all of us up to put Mom & Pop completely out of business. The film crew and the Anchor School are pawns in the whole scheme.

We also learned that the Anchor kids were actually paid actors, not real blind children. The horse used in the film was actually harmed & euthanized on the shoot, and the production staff each drove separate SUVs to the shooting (and used HOV lanes without carpooling!). The relative carbon footprint on this film was overwhelming.

In terms of the high vote count, we learned the crew was operating in conjunction with Homeland Security. Technology developed under the Patriot Act was used to hack the Cinemocracy server and fraudulently tally up several hundred votes. We have a lead that someone on the inside at Cinemocracy was complicit, and will report once we run down the facts.

In conducting a background check on the film maker, we found a history of this activity. She actually rigged Mrs. Jones' 3rd grade art contest at Mapleton Hill Elementary in Boulder in 1979, using the Coca-Cola Company as a sponsor. Interestingly, Mrs. Jones also extended the due date to accomdate her entry. And we understand her parents regularly did her homework for her throughout junior high and high school.

We'll issue additional reports as the facts come in.

I guess we need more info. At this point I think cinemocracy should disclose information about their children, whether any are special needs, and whether any member has any ties to the Anchor Center?

Otherwise, I think this whole contest is now bunk.

Donate Now?

I don't get it, this seems more like the advertisements I see to solicit donations to charities.

The only thing missing is the "Donate Now" button on the site. This is in poor taste. It's a good cause, but this is just wrong. This contest has a purpose and furthering your organization isn't it.