Released on: November 28, 2007, 1:54 am

Press Release Author: WORLDwrite

Industry: Education

Press Release Summary: AS NGOs and celebrities urge us to buy demeaning gifts from
dung to hoes and fill an ethical stocking for our peers in the developing world,
WORLDwrite is launching two films which challenge Western low horizons and aid
prescriptions.



Press Release Body: The films which premiere on December 16th were shot in Ghana and
form the final works in Chew on it's Pricking the Missionary Position series. These
films challenge Western assumptions and suggest many NGO campaigns are about making
us feel good rather than helping our peers.

Director Ceri Dingle said today: "These documentaries provide salutary lessons in
the run up to Xmas and suggest we should ditch the ethical items in our shopping
trolley. If we want to help our peers, we need to think big and hand over the money.
Everyone is getting in on the ethical shopping spree idea and the list of items has
hit an all time low. Oxfam's a share in a bore hole, build a shack for a bog or a
pile of dung are a disgrace and Tesco's modernise a mud hut are totally degrading
and assume our peers want to continue to scrape by on the land and cannot be trusted
to do their own Christmas shopping."

Keeping Africa Small examines Western NGO (Non-Governmental Organisation) practices
in Ghana, West Africa. However well meaning NGOs and aid agencies may be, the film
draws out Ghanaian's dissatisfaction and disgust. As David Ampofo says in the film
"It is a sad reflection for mankind that when there are rockets going to the moon,
they are busy preparing a rope pump for people to fetch water."

I\'m a subsistence farmer... get me out of here! reveals the reality of rural
subsistence life for people in Ghana -its mud huts and mind-numbing toil, growing
just enough to feed your family. A starkly different view to western romantic
notions of simple, tranquil, close to-nature existence it suggests subsistence
farming is a prison sentence not a life style choice.

Producer Viv Regan adds "Who decided that Ghanaians needs are so basic. This year's
Xmas gift catalogues are shocking and show we still think our peers in the poorest
parts of the world are oh so different from us. They are not."

The premieres and launch event for these two films will be held at:

7pm on Sunday 16th December
at the Rich Mix Cinema
35-47 Bethnal Green Road, London E1

Full details of these films, press kits and trailers are available at
http://www.worldwrite.org.uk/keepingafricasmall/ and
http://www.worldwrite.org.uk/subsistencefarmer/

For interviews, further details and press passes phone Ceri or Viv on 020 8985 5435
or email world.write@btconnect.com

Tickets include wine reception, screenings and celebration with Ghanaian drummers
and DJ and can be purchased from: http://www.justgiving.com/ghanafilmpremieres

Ceri Dingle
Director, WORLwrite

A UN DPI accredited NGO, DfES registered NVYO and UK registered Charity No. 1060869


Web Site: http://www.worldwrite.org.uk

Contact Details: WORLDwrite,
Millfields Lodge,
201 Millfields Road
London E5 0AL
Tel 020 8985 5435
world.write@btconnect.com
www.worldwrite.org.uk