• Shanghai World Expo

    FROM MAY 1ST TO OCTOBER 31ST 2010

    The Shanghai World Expo received around 70 million local and international visitors over the six months period. The UN Pavilion itself received more than 3 million visitors during the whole length of the exhibition.


    AN UNIQUE MOVIE : THE MOSAÏC OF FACES

    The core of the exhibition is made up of a synchronised projection on 5 screens. A mosaic of faces will welcome the visitors of the UN pavillon. In this movie, we will meet people from all over the world. They will present themselves in their own languages, share their laughts, their songs, their testimonies... The visitors will be able to follow their words on the five screens as the portrait will be enlarged as they speak...

    Mr. Lars Reutersward, the UN Pavilion Coordinator from UN HABITAT the agency running the UN pavilion explained that this spot, as an allegory of the General Assembly of the UN, is the perfect place to host the 6 billion Others project inside the pavilion:
- the mosaîc on the top of the "walls" of the forum
- the thematic movies on the screen inside the forum.


    THEMATIC MOVIES

    The UN Pavilion is about the size of half a football pitch and includes a forum area resembling the hall of the United Nations General Assembly with 192 seats representing the number of member states, each adorned with a member’s flag. It is in this forum that was presented, each day, the 7 billion Others project.

    Visitors had the opportunity to discover some of the thematic movies that compose the heart of the 7 billion Others project. Inside the forum, on a big screen, will be broadcasted some of the movies shown during the exhibitions. It would thus be possible to see for example testimonies of people from all over the world speaking about their dreams and renouncements, an other movie about love or climate change. All the words and gesture are recorded: from the most light-hearted to the most profound interview, from emotion to reflection, visitors will engage with individuals they are unlikely ever to meet.

    All these movies has be shown in the native language of the people interviewed. Subtitled in Chinese and English will be available.

    There will be 3 hours of projection, each day, during the 6 months length of the World Expo.


    AN HONOR TO BE HOSTED BY THE UNITED NATIONS

    7 billion Others would like to use the opportunity to thank the United Nations for the opportunity they give the project to be shared by such a huge audience and in such a unique place.

    The links between the UN and 7 billion Others are not new. Last year, 5 different UN agencies have been partners of 7 billion Others: a new shooting and a new movie was produced about climate change.
 UNEP, IPCC, WMO, UN Habitat and ISDR were together involved in the movie "Climate Voices" that was presented for the first time during the COP 15, in december 2009, in Copenhagen.
 For this movie, 600 interviews were conducted in 17 countries.

    Testimonies have been gathered in countries where people’s lives are directly and already affected by climate change. And in countries where climate change stays far away from people’s concerns to emphasize how a new awareness of the problem is needed.

    We gathered a sufficient number of interviews to represent the diversity of the issues linked to climate change and the importance of the worldwide phenomenon. This diversity shows how this global phenomenon affects people from very distant countries and different cultures that share the fact that they will be the first to be affected by climate change.

    It underlines the fact that each of us is now concerned by this problem of climate change, sooner or later, depending on the place we live in. These personal testimonies show how a problem that concerns all of us touches human life on a very individual scale with all its subjectivity, cultural and traditional beliefs, fears and emotion.

    Furthermore, the links between the GoodPlanet Foundation and the United Nations are also very important :
 Yann Arthus-Bertrand, chairman of GoodPlanet, is ambassador of good will of the UNEP; 
The UN are supporting other projects of the foundation (GoodPlanet.info for example).