THE PIONEER

Marie wants you to record today’s memory in film

We recently caught up with Marie James, pioneer of the Archeology Project, to get the backstage story on her work.

Where’s home for you?

I’m originally from Paris, but I do feel that London is my home for now. I like it’s vibrant spirit of challenge and creativity. But my real home is…. on a horse’s back!

What one thing would you do to improve your local community?

London can be tough… so maybe make London a nicer place to live!

What do you see as the greatest opportunity to make society better as a whole?

We should open our minds as individuals, and build things together toward a great future.

What project are you currently working on?

For now my hobby is to turn everyone I meet into a daily 60 seconds film-maker through my collective movie-making experience ARCHEOLOGY: let’s record together the memory of today in video!

Why are you passionate about working on this project?

I’m working on this project with ETCaetera production, the film-creation platform we have with some of my close friends who now live all over the world. We love making films together and sharing with the world.

We do believe that people have a lot of hidden stories to share, and that film-making is something we should do together!

What’s currently your greatest challenge in running your project?

Our greatest challenge is to get as much people as possible involved, and allow everyone to become a daily film-maker.

What opportunities are there for people to support your project?

Become a daily film-maker, and make your life a movie, the one you choose to create!

Is there someone else whose project you particularly admire?

I looooooooove the French street artist JR. This guy is a genius! He prints portraits of people on huge posters and pastes them on the walls of the biggest cities in the world. In a way, he just gives the cities back to the people! You can follow his adventures everyday on his Instragram

Thanks to Marie for sharing, and we hope more people will find opportunities to support the Archeology Project.

Born unequal, narrowing the gap

The facts (in the US, as elsewhere):

the children of the rich perform better in school, on average, than children from middle-class or poor families. Students growing up in richer families have better grades and higher standardized test scores, on average, than poorer students; they also have higher rates of participation in extracurricular activities and school leadership positions, higher graduation rates and higher rates of college enrollment and completion.

The reason:

The academic gap is widening because rich students are increasingly entering kindergarten much better prepared to succeed in school than middle-class students. This difference in preparation persists through elementary and high school.

The lesson:

…invest much more heavily as a society in our children’s educational opportunities from the day they are born. Investments in early-childhood education pay very high societal dividends.

Sad that it’s come down to this:

a bra designed to deliver a 3800kv electric shock to any would-be rapist, enough to cause severe burns

Manisha Mohan on the anti-rape bra:

My vision is to see every woman walking confidently on the streets in all parts of the world, even at odd hours.

I aim to give a sense of self-security to women living in the rural areas too. I have not accomplished any of my dreams yet, so it certainly does not give a sense of achievement so far.

Indeed, it adds more responsibility on my shoulders, as many women have placed their trust in this device.

Whatever it takes to curb this menace. An ingenious step.

Adam Foulds on his metamorphosis from forklift truck driver to winning a literary prize:

There are two options for the young writer and employment. There is the proper job, whatever it might be – law, advertising, medicine or the default choice for many, academia. Or there’s the menial, rent-paying job. I chose the latter.

…

I liked the weeds that grew up through cracks in the composite surfacing of the industrial estate. Recalling the place now, I find myself missing it again. It was a healthy place to be a writer, appropriate to the calling. Writing is not a profession, nor should it be constricted or necessitated by any sense of responsibility. Prizes and public positions can confer a false monumentality to the image of writing, making it seem solid, respectable, almost institutional. It isn’t. It’s a marginal activity, poorly paid. It exists for its own sake because it is determined to, the lovely weeds flowering in the cracks of the working world.

Back to school: Malala

Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by the Taliban after campaigning for girls’ rights to education, has attended her first day at school in the UK

I think it is the happiest moment that I’m going back to school, this is what I dreamed, that all children should be able to go to school because it is their basic right.

- Malala