Engaging & Heart Warming Stories & People at 140Conf in LA

Jeff Pulver's 140 Conference was held for the second year in Los Angeles, last year at the prestigious Kodak Theatre and this year at the Music Box on Hollywood Boulevard.

In 2010 alone, there have been #140conf events in: Barcelona,SXSW (Austin), New York City, Washington D.C., Tel Aviv and San Francisco, a #140conf Road Trip and #140conf Boston. And, the content is only getting better.

The conversations, the on-stage storytelling and the panels are authentic and heart warming. And, the range unlike most conferences that center around the use of social media as a tool to accelerate change, grow your brand and engage with customers, is diverse.

Pulver brought together speakers that discussed more traditional topics like the evolution of influence in the real-time web. Also on the stage was @DRG who talked about social media in neurotech and a panel of educators who talked about transformation in and out of the classroom,including @ApsatParentella @teachingwthsoul, @martinez and @reportertanya. Below Jeff introduces LA times teacher Steve Franklin (@SEF4PRES).

 

Because of its location, there was not only a lot of panels on entertainment, but a lot of performers throughout the two days, starting with a VIP private 'show' from Street Performers United, including the very 'hot and sculpted' Candyman, the NSK Dance Group, Haspop, Sammie Jay, Josh Ricketts and Amy May.

Below Amy May (left) and to the right: Won G and Amy May

The NSK Dance Crew

 

 

 

CandyMan @onelovecandyman

CandyMan and Hashpop

Josh Ricketts on saxophone and Julie Spira (@JulieSpira) and I with CandyMan

NSK Dancer and singer songwriter Sammie Jay

Street Performers United performers

Other great sessions included former showbiz guy @BruceSallan who now writes a dad's column, One Day one Earth @onedayoneearth's brandon Litman and Kyle Ruddick, sneakerheads @franalations and @colagrand and @carloshernandez who helped to break down age discrimination in the job search for people over the age of 50.

There was also a news gathering session with @jonlan from O.C. Register, @philhulett with LA's Morning News on KFWB and @webjournalist. Music artist @michellebranch did a solo piece and we had an on-stage conversation with actor @mattbennett. @fireresident talked about life in Haiti in the area of the real-time web and @angelashelton shared a new way to share love on and offline.

There were also an abundance of women attendees unlike so many geek conferences in Silicon Valley. Below, @carolhink @writeononline @LoriMoreno @AdventureGirl @JulieSpira @magicsaucemedia @weblogtheworld

Actor and Comedian @kevinpollack was very entertaining

Jeff Pulver introduces the real estate panel

The Social Media for Social Good Panel, which included @ashong @OKKenna @iamkhayyam @sarah_ross @adventuregirl @tmoorepr and @verolaza.

And of course we had to have a discussion about food....let's get our priorities right. On the panel was @datatv @gastronomyblog, @tendergreens, garden to sustainable cuisine and @manilamachine, LA's first Filipino food truck.

Below, Renee Blodgett, Captain Crunch at opening reception

Musician @andygrammar performed, @itsrishi from Google talked about the real-time web and Indie filmmaking and two farming and cattle ranching dudes came in from northern California, who I managed to talk to after hours about their work on and offline.

@JeffFowle is Owner/Operator and President of KK Bar Ranch and AgChat Foundation and @RayLinDairy runs a dairy, who wonders whether people's lack of tolerance with dairy in the 2000s isn't because we simply have been drinking less of it.

Jeff Pulver, Keyonna King and Bethany Nelson from Real Sovage

Inside the Music Box

The W Hotel Lobby in Hollywood on the last night of the conference.

Calvin from @mayhemstudios

 

Several videos of 140Conf LA to follow this and next week.  The below three shots were taken by Peter Weissenstein.

 

Meet Blio: It Transforms e-Reading

  K-NFB Reading Technology, creator and developer of the Blio e-reading software, today announced the launch of Blio, an incredibly advanced and innovative e-reading application.

Available immediately, Blio features a library of full-color, interactive media content and today’s bestsellers. Apps for iOS, Android and Silverlight platforms are apparently coming soon.

"By providing a full-color, flexible, and interactive experience, Blio redefines the boundaries of the e-book, opening up entirely new categories of multimedia content and, as a result, engaging new groups of readers of e-books," says founder and CEO Ray Kurzweil.

Through its partnership with Baker & Taylor, the world’s largest distributor of print and digital books, Blio will not only offer today’s bestsellers but also interactive rich-media, video, slide-show, and audio enhanced content from more than 100 top publishers, including Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Penguin Group, Macmillan and Simon & Schuster.

Blio offers a library of more than 1 million paid and free titles, and is currently adding new publishers and thousands of new titles weekly. Currently, Blio supports English, French and Spanish, with Italian, German and Asian-language options to follow.

With its ability to reproduce the color, layout and original fonts as in the print version of a book, Blio brings to life a large selection of books that are not available with E Ink devices. Categories such as children’s books and lifestyle books, encompassing travel guides, cookbooks, and textbooks, finally have an e-reader that can deliver the experience to the reader that was intended by the author.

Blio has a host of functions that make it smart, fun and easy to use. Highlights include:

• Blio mimics a book’s printed format like no other e-reader, with files presented in XPS format, which allows digital books to stay true to their original print version. Blio also supports the more limited ePub-formatted books.
• Blio is powered by the most advanced text-to-speech technology, using the Nuance Vocalizer, which allows readers to download two lifelike voices (“Samantha” and “Tom”) for hands-free use. To facilitate reading and learning, Blio provides unique synchronized highlighting of the words being spoken.
• Blio’s full-media functionality allows users to insert notes into digital pages, highlight sections and even look up references on websites, without leaving their e-book.
• Downloaded Blio titles are stored in a personal virtual library, enabling flexible access to content. This library can be accessed easily from numerous devices, allowing users to begin reading their book on a home PC, then pick up where they left off on a netbook or laptop. Future Blio versions will also support tablets and mobile devices and iOS, Android and Silverlight platforms.

Waste Land: The Forgotten People (Catadores)

This week in San Francisco, there's a showing of Waste Land, an award-winning documentary takes you into a world that is becoming more common that we think.

The film follows the journey of artist Vik Muniz to his native Brazil and the world's largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro where he photographs the forgotten people or "catadores" -- self-designated pickers of recyclable materials.

Through his journey, you will discover beauty and hope amidst hardship, the dignity of the human spirit, along with fading boundaries through visionary art and sacrificial giving.

Lucy Walker (Devil's Playground, Blindsight) has great access to the entire process and, in the end, offers stirring evidence of the transformative power of art and the alchemy of the human spirit. 

Camden International Film Festival Next Month

The Camden International Film Festival returns for its sixth season in October 2010. The festival will shine the spotlight on a number of great artistic works.

All films are selected because of their ability to arouse discussion on documentary film as an art form, a catalyst for change and as an outlet for the independent voice.

Each year, the event takes over multiple venues throughout three coastal towns in Maine.

Nestled against the mighty Atlantic during fall’s explosion of color, the festival becomes a unique setting to experience the very best in international documentary film.

Accompanying the screening of nearly fifty features and shorts are Q&A’s with directors and producers, the Points North Documentary Film Forum, musical concerts, interactive and video art installations, parties, panels and an opportunity to connect with eager audiences and industry leaders in an extremely intimate setting.

The main venues they use are Camden’s Opera House and Bayview St. Cinema and Rockland’s Strand Theatre and Farnsworth Art Museum.

Some of the films you can view this year include:

A ROAD NOT TAKEN Directors Christina Hemauer and Roman Keller | USA | 2010

The story of the solar panels that former US President Jimmy Carter had installed on the roof of the White House. His successor, Ronald Reagan, had the panels removed – accompanied by a radical alienation from Carter’s energy program. Thirty years later two filmmakers tracked down the panels and traced the story of their journey back from Maine to Washington D.C. BUDRUS Director Julia Bacha | Occupied Palestinian Territorries, Israel, USA | 2009 | 82 min A Palestinian leader unites Fatah, Hamas and Israelis in an unarmed movement to save his village from destruction. Success eludes them until his 15-year-old daughter jumps into the fray.

CAPE WIND (Work in Progress) Directors Robbie Gemmel and Daniel Coffin | USA | 2010 | 90 min

Cape Wind Illuminates the divisive controversy of the Cape Wind Project, a proposal to build 130 massive wind towers five miles off the coast of Cape Cod in Nantucket Sound. The film translates the furor which exploded on Cape Cod into a definitive battle which will be replicated hundreds of times over as industrial-scale renewable energy projects are proposed for America’s deserts, ridgelines and waterways.

CIRCO Director Aaron Schock | USA | 2010 | 75 min

New England Premiere Set within a century-old circus, CIRCO is an intimate portrait of a Mexican family struggling to stay together despite mounting debt, dwindling audiences, and a simmering family conflict that threatens this once-vibrant family tradition. This cinematic road movie opens the viewer to the luminous world of a traveling circus while examining the universal themes of family bonds, filial responsibility, and the weight of cultural inheritance.

DAVID WANTS TO FLY Director David Sieveking | Germany | 2010 | 97 min

US Premiere In search of enlightenment, young filmmaker David Sieveking follows his idol David Lynch and uncovers the billion-dollar industry behind Transcendental Meditation.

DO IT AGAIN Directors Geoff Edgers and Robert Patton-Spruill | USA | 2010 | 85 min

It is a quest. Geoff Edgers, a newspaper reporter dreading the approach of his 40th birthday, decides to take a most improbable leap. He sets out to find the still-surviving members of the long dormant British rock band, the Kinks (“You Really Got Me,” “Lola” and “Come Dancing”), to convince them to reunite.

DREAMLAND Director Andri Snær Magnason | Iceland | 2009 | 89 min

US Premiere A film about a nation standing at crossroads. Leading up to the Iceland’s greatest economic crisis, the government started the largest project in the country’s history: to build the biggest dam in Europe to provide the Alcoa company cheap electricity for an aluminum smelter in the rugged east fjords. Today Iceland is left holding a huge dept and an uncertain future.

THE DISAPPERANCE OF MCKINLEY NOLAN Director Henry Corra | USA | 2010 | 77 min

New England Premiere Private McKinley Nolan vanished forty years ago in Vietnam on the Cambodian frontier. Some say he was captured, some say he was a traitor, some even say he was an American operative. The U.S. Army officially claims he was radicalized and “went native,” joined the Viet Cong and was later murdered by the Khmer Rouge. The film follows the Nolan family from the cotton belt of Texas, to the battlegrounds of Vietnam, to the killing fields of Cambodia and unfolds as a mysterious fever dream filled with doubt, longing and the will to believe.

FAMILY AFFAIR Director Chico Colvard | USA | 2010 | 80 min

At 10 years old, Chico Colvard accidentally shot his older sister in the leg. This seemingly random act detonated a chain reaction that exposed unspeakable realities and shattered his family. Thirty years later, Colvard ruptures veils of secrecy and silence again. As he bravely visits his relatives, what unfolds is a personal film that’s as uncompromising, raw, and cathartic as any in the history of the medium.

GENERAL ORDERS No. 9 Director Robert Persons | USA | 2009 | 72 min

Northeast Premiere One last trip down the rabbit hole before it’s paved over. An experimental documentary that contemplates the signs of loss and change in the American South as potent metaphors of personal and collective destiny.

GOODNIGHT NOBODY Director Jacqueline Zünd | Switzerland/Germany | 2010 | 77 min

US Premiere A journey through night, space and time. Four protagonists from four different continents share the same affliction: they can't sleep. With varying tactics, they resign themselves to the fact that they must live around the clock without interruption. A hypnotic journey through the most beautiful of all film settings: the night.

GREETINGS FROM THE WOODS Director Mikel Cee Karlsson | Sweden | 2009 | 75 min

New England Premiere Life follows its peaceful course in a remote little town in the Swedish forest. The unforgettable characters introduced enliven the sometimes absurd little scenes in this immersive exploration of everyday life in a particular place in Sweden.

HEAVEN AND EARTH AND JOE DAVIS (Work In Progress) Director Peter Sasowski | USA | 2010

Thirty years ago, a peg-legged motorcycle mechanic named Joe Davis walked into the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT. They had not returned his calls. The police were summoned. Forty-five minutes later he walked out with an academic appointment. This film documents the life of an artist who is driven to pursue questions that can only be answered in the space where the boundaries between science and art blur.

LA BELLE VISITE (JOURNEY’S END) Director Jean-Francois Caissy | Canada | 2010 | 80 min

Northeast Premiere In the far reaches of the Quebec countryside, between a road and a headland that plunges into the sea, an abandoned motel has been converted into a retirement home. In this former travelers’ retreat, time seems to have ground to a halt. This film is an elegiac exploration of old age, set in a place at once physical and allegorical.

MARWENCOL Director Jeff Malmberg | USA | 2010 | 82 min

After a vicious attack leaves him brain damaged and broke, Mark Hogancamp seeks recovery in Marwencol, a 1/6th –scale World War II-era town he creates in his backyard.

MY PERESTROIKA Director Robin Hessman | USA, Russia | 2010 | 88 min

This film follows five ordinary Russians living in extraordinary times — from their sheltered childhoods, to the collapse of the Soviet Union during their teenage years, to the constantly shifting political landscape of post-Soviet Russia.

ON COAL RIVER Directors Francine Cavanaugh and Adams Wood | USA | 2010 | 81 min

New England Premiere Coal River Valley, West Virginia is a community surrounded by lush mountains and a looming toxic threat. The film follows four longtime residents as they confront a notorious coal company, their local school board, and state government to protect their families and community from the effects of an increasingly mechanized and destructive coal industry.

ON THE OTHER SIDE OF LIFE Directors Stefanie Brockhaus/Andy Wolff | Germany | 2009 | 88 min

To survive in a Cape Town township, brothers Lucky and Bongani learned their lessons early. They move through ever-shifting worlds, cultures, and traditions in a film that transcends a social environment study to become a far-ranging essay about the future of an Africa ground to pieces between tradition and modernity.

PRODIGAL SONS Kimberly Reed | USA | 2008 | 86 min

Returning home to a small town in Montana for her high school reunion, filmmaker Kimberly Reed hopes for reconciliation with her long estranged adopted brother, Marc. But along the way she uncovers stunning revelations, including his blood relationship with Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth, intense sibling rivalries, and unforeseeable twists of plot and gender that force them both to face challenges no one could imagine.

Special Work-in-Progress Screening: Untitled Film About Light Pollution & Disappearing Dark USA 

When a filmmaker and amateur astronomer moves into his apartment in New York, he climbs atop his Brooklyn rooftop to survey the night sky. But bathed in its glow of orange streetlights, the City that Never Sleeps only has a dozen stars to see. One disappointing autumn evening becomes a journey to answer a simple question: do we need the dark?

SUMMER PASTURE Directors Lynn True and Nelson Walker | USA | 2010 | 85 min

A film about a young couple living with their infant daughter in the nomadic pastures of eastern Tibet. With rare access to an area seldom visited by outsiders, the film opens a unique window into a highly insular community and offers a sensitive portrait of a family at a time of great transition.

SUN COME UP Director Jennifer Redfearn | USA | 2010 | 38 mins

New England Premiere This film follows the relocation of some of the world’s first environmental refugees, the Carteret Islanders – a community living on a remote island chain in the South Pacific Ocean. When rising seas threaten their survival, the islanders face a painful decision: they must leave their beloved land in search of a new place to call home.

TANKOGRAD Director Boris B. Bertram | Denmark | 2010 | 58 min

US Premiere Chelyabinsk, in Western Siberia, is infamous for its extreme pollution and its vibrant dance community. This film is a lyrical documentary about a world-class modern dance company that examines the hopes and struggles of a group of young Russians trying to find meaning and expression in the dreary and frightening reality of New Russia through the art of dance.

WAR DON DON Director Rebecca Richman Cohen | USA | 2010 | 83 min

In Krio, war don don means “the war is over,” and although today Sierra Leone is at peace, the specter of war remains ever-present. Can the trial of one man uncover the truth of a traumatic past? With unprecedented access to prosecutors, defense attorneys, victims, and – from behind bars – the accused himself, War Don Don puts international justice on trial for the world to see.

WASTELAND Director Lucy Walker | Brazil | 2010 | 89 min

We follow renowned artist Vik Muniz as he journeys from his home base in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world's largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. There he photographs an eclectic band of "catadores" – or self-designated pickers of recyclable materials. Muniz’s collaboration with the “catadores” to recreate photographic images of themselves out of garbage reveals both dignity and despair.

More Than an MP3......

A bit of horn-tooting for one of Omobono's (former) own, Andy, who has used his digital mastery for an exciting new project of his own, called 3DiCD.

It is a digital experience for online music, providing interactive packaging along with the music files. As they have said: “With a 3DiCD, listeners get the whole packaging experience; engagement and immersion all within the online environment.

Last week, Andy and the 3DiCD team launched with a digital version of Imogen Heap’s Grammy award winning album, Ellipse. You can check it out here.

We wish Andy and the team the best of luck.

Ubergizmo's Digital Summer: August 25: #DS2010

I'm a fan of Ubergizmo's content and their annual Digital Summer event, now in its second year. Last year, they drew hundreds of people to their August event in San Francisco, where movers-and-shakers in the area of technology, fashion, design and media converged.

Digital Summer's mission is to bring together technology exhibitors and art exhibitors (photographers, artists, fashion designers, designers, music artists) in a unique setting and it works, a refreshing blend in a city largely known for tech only -- all the time.

In fact, both worlds rarely mix and each has a lot to gain by doing so. Promoting promising artists, designers, photographers and emerging technologies is the underlying motivation of producing Digital Summer. Additionally, Digital Summer aims to promote women and their access to technology, both as users and as professionals. Rock on and kudos to producer Eliane Fiolet and her team.

This year, the event will be held on August 25th, 2010. Among the unique features of this one-of-a-kind event is a live runway fashion show showcasing designers Colleen Quen Couture, Jan Warnock, Harputs OWN and Sofie Olgaard. Manika Jewelry will provide the jewelry and attendees will also have a chance to enjoy a professional photo-shoot.

Attendees can register here and for the social media addicts among us, the Twitter hash is #DS2010, so tweet up a storm - it's an event worth tweeting about.

The program will include sponsors like Intel, who will showcase the future of fashion display and Verizon Wireless where you'll get an opportunity to try out their latest 3G smartphones. You can get a hands-on demo of the Droid X by Motorola and the Verizon Wireless MiFi 2200 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot.

Other cool things and a call-to-action, or should I say, "eco-action" -- attendees are encouraged to bring their old phones for recycling through the Verizon Wireless HopeLine Program, where the contributed phones will be refurbished or recycled in an environmentally friendly way. With the funds raised from the sale of the refurbished phones, Verizon Wireless supports non-profit organizations providing vital services to domestic violence survivors.

We Blog the World is a proud media sponsor of this exciting event that promises to surprise and entertain.

Breaking Through with Tony Robbins on National Network NBC

“Breakthrough” is a new summer reality show on NBC with Tony Robbins, which started last week. Many know Tony from his empowerment seminars and audiotapes, which are marketed worldwide, making Tony Robbins synonymous with motivation and life coaching. He has also written books and for years, held 2 day to week long seminars on getting your life on track and creating empowering choices in your life, whether that be around relationships, finance or your professional 'destiny.'

Given that I have done a number of Tony Robbins seminars myself and have met him personally on more than one occasion, the way he is often portrayed in the press doesn't do him justice, nor is it always accurate. People still respond to old infomercials from twenty years ago - a bit like pigeon-holing Ron Howard into his role as Richie in Happy Days when years later, he has gone on to become producer and director of well-known respected films.

C'mon people, move on - haven't you progressed in your career development and the things you have done in the past two decades? Tony has come a LONG way since the late-night infomercials he did early on in his career. Today, he spends his life work not just running seminars that help change people's lives for the better, but he coaches major luminaries, politicians, sports heroes and Hollywood celebs as well. Additionally, he has a non-profit foundation, which provides assistance to the homeless, elderly and inner-city youth, and feeds more than one million people in nine countries every year through its international holiday "Basket Brigade."

The New York Times article on his NBC debut writes, "Mr. Robbins is well spoken and persuasive, but the series is a reminder of how unusual his looks are for a man in the counseling field. Enormously tall, dark, with big teeth, high cheekbones and the hint of a five o’clock shadow, Mr. Robbins looks more dangerous than safe and more wolfish than shepherdly; he could pass for a Bond villain."

Anyone who knows Tony personally would be in stitches over this description......I still laugh at it re-reading it the fifth time around. Clearly the reporter hasn't met him if they think he could pass as a Bond villain after looking in his eyes or shaking his hand. But yes, Tony is tall and has a powerful presence. But, given her reference, it makes it seem like all counselors should be shepherdly and safe. Egads. Think about it, if you're a type A athlete who is muscular and 6 foot something, might you not want a personal development life coach who can not only get you to deal with where you're stuck emotionally, but also physically match you?

I'm not a professional athlete nor am I over six foot tall and I know I'd opt for someone with Tony's energy and presence than a shepherdly, safe counselor who what, starts the clock, stares at and listens to you from across the couch for 59 minutes until the bell rings? Hell, that's not what I call transformative work even though I'm not discounting that it can be helpful for some people along their life's journey. Bottom line, there are more effective techniques and approaches out there and Tony has mastered them.

It's time to rethink the paradigm and rethink the speed at which we CAN change our lives and break our old patterns. Transformation can be almost immediate. What I mean by this is that change happens the moment you make a DECISION to make change your patterns - really make that decision.

There are countless things that Tony walks people through in his seminars to break your patterns and create a life worth living but the big one is this: Rewrite Your Story.

A rewrite isn't done by seeing a shrink for months or years on end trying to analyze why your story is what it is and slowly migrating from an old you to a new one. It happens the moment you DECIDE to rewrite that story. It's yours to create and his point is a simple one - you're the author, so why not write an incredible life story?

Some kudos for Tony's new show below. And yes, as it may appear from my tone, I am also a fan of his work. More at Breakthrough Insider.

New Lessons from Old Spice

By now, I’m sure you’ve all at least heard of the Old Spice Guy campaign and the immense waves it made this week. It is one for the textbooks – a case study that will be reviewed, recounted and revisited for at least the next year, I’m sure. And with good reason. On every level, it was exemplary of what a digital campaign should be.

It answered all the social media ‘rules’:

1. Be engaging
2. Be integrated
3. Be human
4. Be transparent
5. Influence the influencers

The campaign, which began with a string of hilarious print and TV ads, moved into digital using YouTube to broadcast personalised video responses to people talking about or to Old Spice across social networks (primarily Twitter, Facebook and YouTube but also across forums like Reddit and Yahoo! Answers). With YouTube as it’s very well-branded ‘homebase’, the campaign took the brand into other spaces with similar, but space-specific, creative treatments, behaviours and tone of voice.

The responses were instantly popular. Hilarious and off-beat, they very rarely spoke about the actual brand or product (unless, somehow, smacking a pinata with a dead fish is somewhere in the Old Spice brand guidelines). The brand became human. It wasn’t Old Spice the brand, it was the Old Spice Guy with (funny) stories. And it was responding personally to us, the users, the ‘dearest and closest internet friends’.

While the Old Spice Man created videos for the ‘average joe’ (and did he ever - he actually even proposed for someone), he also responded to users with high levels of activity, followers and authority (such as Digg founder Kevin Rose and celebritweeters like Alyssa Milano, Ashton Kutcher and Ellen Degeneres) which helped the campaign grow exponentially. It brought the level to an accessible user level and found celebrity involvement without the celebrity fee.

Old Spice started by sponsoring a tweet to solidify their space in Twitter’s Top Trends and the campaign was trending across Twitter and the web within hours of the initial tweet (something that would have happened organically, without the sponsored tweet – but still a safe move on Old Spice’s part).

Throughout the campaign, the agency behind it all – Wieden + Kennedy – brilliantly kept an open-door policy about the whole thing, offering up behind-the-scene shots and tell-all explanations of how the process was working.

The campaign is a simple idea, executed well. It hasn’t reinvented the wheel, but it has defined the way we use it.

What’s the big takeaway that B2B marketers can take from this? That thisn't just a B2C case study - it is a case study for B2B, too.

Before this, Old Spice was not an exciting brand. For as long as I have known it, it has been ‘the stuff my dad wears’ (and my Dad really does wear it which he will now claim makes him a trendsetter).

Campaigns like this are what give brands new traction. B2B has long had the reputation of being less fun and creative than the consumer side of our industry. We know that’s not true, so let’s get out the dead fish and started beating the piñata with it!

Exporting Raymond to Whoaah Moscow?

Film writer and director Phil Rosenthal and producer John Woldenberg is doing a preview of their latest film - Exporting Raymond - in Montreal Canada this Thursday, July 14, 2010.

Rosenthal, who is best known for his creation of the American hit TV series Everybody Loves Raymond, is now introducing Exporting Raymond to the big screen.

The film is a funny true story of the attempt to translate Raymond into a Russian sitcom. This amusing tale, where culture clashes lurk around every Moscow corner, will have you in stitches.

Below is Rosenthal on the set with the Director.

Rosenthal and Woldenberg take us on a hilarious, warm and intimate journey of one man, considered an expert in his country, who travels to a land to help people that don't seem to want his help. Lost in Moscow, lost in his mission, lost in translation, Rosenthal tries to connect with his Russian colleagues but runs into unique characters and situations that conspire to drive him insane. The movie is an international adventure, a genuine, fish out-of-water comedy that could only exist in real life.

Host Your Own Show on Oprah

Oprah and reality TV super producer Mark Burnett (Survivor & The Apprentice) are joining forces in search of the next big TV star.

They're seeking big personalities to host their own talk show. People can also help decide who wins - you can view nominations and vote for your favorites.