As Baha’is around the world prepare to commemorate the Martyrdom of the Bab in a few days, and with the bicentenary of the Birth of the Bab around the corner, I wanted to share that five new video clips of aerial footage of the Shrine of the Bab, located in Haifa, Israel, have recently been added to the Baha’i Media Bank, and from what I can tell, it’s the first time video has been added to the collection. Continue reading
I wanted to share an awesome initiative spearheaded by the Baha’i Community of New Zealand called The Race Unity Speech Awards. Having started back in 2001, the event is an annual public speaking competition for senior high school students in New Zealand, and although the topic varies from year to year, the theme is always around race. Students are given one or two quotes and several bullet points relating to the particular topic, and asked to consider them when preparing their speeches. Regional heats are held in 14 locations around the country and around 25 of the regional participants gather in Auckland each year for the national semi-finals and finals. The speech awards provide a nationwide platform for students to express their ideas on how we can improve race relations, and the theme for 2019 was “Speaking for Justice, Working for Unity”. In conjunction with the speech awards are also gatherings called Race Unity Hui. These gatherings are also organized to give young people an opportunity to be heard when it comes to race relations issues, and they provide a space for young people to advance the conversation about race relations in New Zealand.
This year’s finals of The Race Unity Speech Awards just took place last month, and Robbie White of New Plymouth Boys’ High School won the competition; he cited examples of past and present New Zealand leaders who have helped to forge unity in New Zealand, and confidently wove the Maori language into his speech (which you can watch here). Nina Gelashvilli, a Year 12 student at Kuranui College in the Wairarapa, was the national runner-up and Michael Echague, a Year 12 student from St John’s College in Hamilton, was a national finalist. I was excited to hear from these three participants about their experience with this incredible event, and here’s what they shared with me: Continue reading
Over three years ago we launched Baha’i Blog’s YouTube channel, where we set out to create our very own original Baha’i-inspired video content. Now, with over 350 videos on our channel, we have a variety of content to offer, including informative animations like What is the Junior Youth Spiritual Empowerment Program?, our popular music series called Studio Sessions, Baha’i-inspired talks, our short film series on creatives called The Art Of…, and the funny What’s That Word? educational series aimed at junior youth.
We are excited to be a part of the steadily growing ecosystem of Baha’i-inspired video content online, and we also contribute to this ecosystem by helping and collaborating with others to make specific videos such as The Last Time I Saw My Father and the short film Switch.
Over the last Baha’i year (from Naw-Ruz 2018 to Naw-Ruz 2019), Baha’i Blog’s YouTube channel had over 1.4 million views, and we thought it would be interesting to count down our 10 most popular YouTube videos of this last year, starting with number ten: Continue reading
Omid Gollmer is the creator behind “The Nightingale Sessions”, a series of devotional videos that put excerpts from the Baha’i Writings to music. Based in Stuttgart, Germany, these videos were made in commemoration of the bicentenary of the Birth of Baha’u’llah. (If you’d like to see one, we showcased it on Baha’i Blog’s video section here.)
Omid kindly agreed to tell us a little about these moving musical pieces and the production of their videos. I hope you enjoy our conversation!
Over two years ago we launched Baha’i Blog’s YouTube channel, where we set out to create our very own original Baha’i-inspired video content. Now, about 200 videos later, we have a variety of content to offer, including informative animations like our What are Devotional Gatherings?, our popular music series called Studio Sessions, Baha’i-inspired talks, our short film series on creatives called The Art Of…, and the funny What’s That Word? series aimed at junior youth.
We are excited to be a part of the steadily growing ecosystem of Baha’i-inspired video content online, and we also contribute to this ecosystem by helping and collaborating with others to make specific videos such as the The Last Time I Saw My Father and the short film Switch.
We’ve been trying to reach 10,000 subscribers on our YouTube channel, and we’re almost there, but could really use your help to get us across the line! YouTube has studios located in different parts of the world, and if we have over 10,000 subscribers, we can gain access to them and hopefully use them for some of our future initiatives, so if you can take a few seconds to help us make this happen by clicking here to SUBSCRIBE, we’d really appreciate it! We’d also be very grateful if you could help us spread the word and ask everyone you know who likes Baha’i Blog to help us achieve this goal too!
So now that that’s out of the way (and thank you so much for helping out with that!) let’s get on with counting down our 10 most popular YouTube videos of the year, from Naw-Ruz 2017 to Naw-Ruz 2018, starting with number one: Continue reading
About a year ago I got a call from Rainn Wilson asking me to have a chat with a guy who wanted to create a feature length documentary about the Bab. His name was Steve Sarowitz. He was an entrepreneur and had absolutely no experience in getting a documentary made, plus he had only recently become a member of the Baha’i Faith, but we had an amazing conversation for a couple of hours over the phone about the idea, and I have to say that his enthusiasm and determination for making the documentary was contagious!
Now a year later, Steve actually did it! He made the film, and I’m so excited to let everyone know about it! It’s called The Gate: Dawn of the Baha’i Faith, and it’s a visually stunning documentary, rich with interviews and reenactments. It tells the story of the life of the Bab and describes some of His Teachings. Engaging, captivating and creatively put together, this film will be of interest both to those who have heard of the Bab and His Teachings, and those who have never heard of Him.
We just featured Steve Sarowitz on the Baha’i Blogcast with Rainn Wilson, and I also asked him a few questions to find out more about The Gate: Dawn of the Baha’i Faith. Before we get to that, if you haven’t done so already, I recommend you watch the movie’s trailer here, and then move on to the interview: Continue reading
Commissioned by the Universal House of Justice, A Widening Embrace is a new innovative documentary film about the community-building efforts of the Baha’i world, as seen through the eyes of local populations.
The film has just been made available online here via Bahai.org, the official website for the Baha’i International Community.
The Baha’i World News Service (BWNS) reported that the film was screened at the recent 12th International Baha’i Convention in Haifa, Israel, enriching the consultations of the 1,300 delegates present, as many of the themes discussed over the days of the Convention were highlighted in the practical examples presented in the documentary. Continue reading
Baha’i Blog’s YouTube Channel has now surpassed over one million views and the Baha’i Blog team is super excited! In fact, over the last 12 months, Baha’i Blog’s YouTube channel has doubled in just about everything including views, subscribers, shares and content, and although it’s not just about the numbers for us, we’re excited about this milestone! Continue reading
The Universal House of Justice has commissioned a feature film for the joyous and historic Bicentenary anniversary of the Birth of Baha’u’llah, Prophet-founder of the Baha’i Faith. “Light to the World” can be downloaded or watched online from the official bicentennial website: bicentenary.bahai.org Continue reading
“Stories of Baha’u’llah” is a series of short videos produced by Clark Donnelly and Mary Darling of Westwind Pictures. You may have already seen their work, such as The Baha’is, or Tablets of the Divine Plan.
In this sweet and sincere series of videos, each video consists of a child telling us a one particular story relating to Baha’u’llah.
I got in touch with Mary Darling to find out more about the initiative, and here’s what she had to say: Continue reading