The Donate Life Film Festival returns June 11-12, 2010 to honor Hollywood actors, producers and writers who promoted positive stories of organ donation and transplantation, and to provide instructional workshops to impact future donation storylines in television and film.
“Donate Life Hollywood worked closely with the creator Carol Barbee who had a keen interest in assuring that her show did not harm and helped when it could”
The two-day program is sponsored by Donate Life Hollywood, a campaign created in 2007 after research demonstrated the impact of organ donation storylines on public perceptions of donation, stopping many Americans from signing up to be donors.
“As a way to work proactively with the entertainment industry, the organ and tissue donation and transplant community created Donate Life Hollywood as a resource for writers of scripted dramas, reality show and talk show producers, independent film makers, and anyone else interested in our stories of hope and transformation,” said Tenaya Wallace, campaign director of Donate Life Hollywood. “The Donate Life Film Festival, the Person of the Year event and the Donate Life Hollywood Inspire Awards dinner are a celebration of great storytelling that inspires Americans to donate life.”
The Festival opens Friday June 11 at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills with a VIP cocktail party hosted by Ann Lopez, wife of and living kidney donor to comedian and actor George Lopez. The invite-only red carpet event will honor the Donate Life Hollywood Person of the Year. Nominees for the 2010 award are: the Grammy Award winning R&B group All 4 One; the media mogul and CEO of CBS, Les Moonves; the rising star and hottest transplant surgeon on television, Alex O’Loughlin; the only person to ever have won an Olympic medal with a transplant, Chris Klug; and the smooth-voiced lead-singer of The Calling, Alex Band. More than 4,000 people voted for Person of the Year and nominees will attend the cocktail party. [SOURCE]