Miami, FL – March 4, 2014 – Righteous Pictures, a film and new media production company founded by Miaminative, Michael Pertnoy, will be bringing its documentary, WEB, to Miami International Film Festival, presented and produced by Miami Dade College, this March.  The film, which has been described as “engaging, informative and provocative*,” follows Peruvian families living in remote villages in the Amazon Jungle and Andes Mountains as their children experience the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) program, gaining access to the Internet for the first time. 

  “From the beginning, we wanted to make a film that explores both the positive impact and negative consequences that may arise from the spread of technology to the furthest corners of the globe,” said WEB Producer Michael Pertnoy. “The OLPC program became the lens through which we were able to tell this story in real-time as it unfolded on the ground.”

  One Laptop Per Child, the world-renowned project to provide a modern education to children through a connected computing device, launched the project in Peru in 2007. The program, which is run by the Ministry of Education, has deployed around 900,000 XO laptops in Spanish and local indigenous languages.

“OLPC project in Peru was able to connect communities from the Amazonian to the Jungle regions,” said Rodrigo Arboleda, its CEO. “Empowering them with connected solar powered devices in their native languages, both kids and adults are exposed to learning that otherwise would not have happened.”

The film plays on Saturday, March 8th at 4pm at the Regal Theater on Alton Road in South Beach and again the following Saturday, March 15th at 1:45pm at the Paragon Theater in Coconut Grove.  Tickets can be purchased directly from the Miami International Film Festival website.

Web The Film: As children in some of the most remote parts of the world connect to the Internet for the first time, Web considers both the benefits and complications that arise from digital connections. Alongside the poignant and sometimes humorous local stories, the film includes interviews with leading thinkers on the Internet including Foursquare Founder Dennis Crowley, Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales and OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte for an insightful look at our times.

Righteous Pictures is a film and new media production company that produces social issue films and public engagement campaigns to serve as platforms for dialogue and catalysts for change around the most critical issues of our time. We are dedicated to producing and disseminating content across media platforms to inspire, inform, entertain, and ultimately change the way the viewer sees the world. 

One Laptop per Child (OLPC at http://www.laptop.org) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide every child in the world access to new channels of learning, sharing and self-expression. In partnership with the public and private sectors and non- governmental organizations and supported by comprehensive implementation and pedagogical services, OLPC seeks to provide each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power connected device that empowers individual learning and growth.

*Haute Lifestyle:  http://bit.ly/1fQKU4F

Rodrigo Arboleda is currently Chairman and CEO f One Laptop per Child Association (OLPC). OLPC has delivered more than 2 million laptops to children in more than 35 countries and 21 languages worldwide.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

1:00 pm Central time

To all our South African Friends (and now to our friends in Africa and all over the world):

A great man has departed to better and more peaceful pastures. He leaves behind a legacy of unprecedented importance to humanity. One of reconciliation and peace. One of equality under the eyes of not only that Superior Being but, most important, among ourselves. One of humbleness and perseverance. One of dignity and simplicity. One of elegance but without losing the common touch. A smile the melted the hardest minds and souls. A spark in his eyes that inspired hope and foresaw better times.