Hollywood shocked by truth about Belarus

29.10.2009, 16:00

Co-owner of DreamWorks studio, producer of Lost series, leading Hollywood actresses and famous American TV stars said they would raise the problems of Belarus in the world.

On October 28, the second stage of the IWMF award-giving ceremony took place in Los Angeles. Belarusian journalist Iryna Khalip got the Courage in Journalist award. The first stage was held in New York on October 20, as www.charter97.org has reported earlier.

The Belarusian journalist won the award alongside with Agnes Taile, a Cameroonian radio journalist, and Jila Baniyaghoob, an Iranian journalist. The IWMF also presented its Lifetime Achievement Award to Amira Hass from Israel.

The ceremony took place in Beverly Hills Hotel, one of the most famous Hollywood hotels.

“it was an evening event, in kind of Hollywood California, not business New York. The ceremony gathered representatives of TV and movie industry, famous film producers, film directors, actors, designers, and journalists. Such events are not exotic, but usual for them. These people try to keep an eye on the world events, so, incredible as it may seem, “lazy” California and “lazy” Hollywood are rather active,” Iryna Khalip told www.charter97.org.

The event was chaired by David Geffen, one of the most well-known and influential Hollywood film producers, a co-founder the DreamWorks SKG studio (alongside with Steven Spielberg), producer of films Interview with the Vampire, Little Shop of Horrors, Broadway musicals Cats and Dreamgirls.

“Hollywood stars are engaged in social activity, among other things, they support journalists from the countries, where the freedom of speech suffers suffocation. When I was introduced to David Geffen and he heard I come from Belarus, he said: ‘You know, Belarus is a very cruel place’. His parents come from Lithuania, he really understands how difficult it is to live in our country,” Khalip noted.

Famous Hollywood film director J. J. Abrams, creator of Lost series and director of Mission: Impossible blockbuster, was an honorary guest.

“Abrams told me he would like to know more about Belarus, but Hollywood is too lazy to look for news from other continents in rare spare moments. The famous director said there’s acute lack of information and asked me to send him news from Belarus in order he and his charity foundation to spread it in Hollywood. I said we have an excellent website www.charter97.org with an English version, where all news from Belarus, including my articles, are published. Abrams assured me he would read and spread news from Charter’97 website. ‘If we know the situation in your country, we’ll be able to help you,’ the film director said meaning the Belarusian civil society and journalists,” the journalist said.

Actress Angie Harmon, known in Belarus from Law & Order television series, presented awards to winners of prizes of International Women’s Media Foundation.

“Angie Harmon, a human rights activist, stated Hollywood stars are not as indifferent as it may seem at first glance. They try to do something to change the world. The problem is absence of information about Belarus. If American film makers and actors get more information about our country, they will have more opportunities to react and help us,” Iryna Khalip told.

According to the journalist, before her New York speech speech at the ceremony (she repeated her ), she didn’t need to explain the audience what is Belarus and what’s going on here.

“Famous CNN correspondent Judy Woodruff introduced our country. She quoted Lukashenka’s remarks about freedom of speech and said about the last opposition pickets in Minsk, how riot militia beat and arrested peaceful demonstrators, hindered photo correspondents and camera operators to film the events and didn’t allow journalists to collect evidence of the outrage. Judy Woodruff promised Belarus would become an important theme in the American media, because everyone understands that such a state in Europe is not less dangerous than Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan. I hope the world will really speak about Belarus,” the Belarusian journalist said.

The journalist was impressed by the fact that not only leading US media, but also Glamour magazine wrote about the winner of the Courage in Journalism Award.

“The magazine journalists said topical political news and state of female journalists in other countries are very important for them. I was shocked; it’s hard to imagine glamorous press in neighbouring countries giving attention to the women, who struggle for human rights, freedom of speech, ecology, for anything else. Active women. But American Glamour writes about this. The situation in the US is absolutely different, their mentality is different,” the journalist said.

A meeting with actresses from The Bold and the Beautiful television series was exiting:

“The charming Hollywood beauties, who attended the ceremony to congratulate us, withstood with us a severe attack of photographers. Having standing for ten minutes under flashes, I said: ‘What an awfully hard work you do! If this happens every day, I can’t imagine how you live!’ The pretty glamorous girls answered: “You know, what we do here is easy. But how you, journalists in Belarus, do your work there and survive – this is a mystery. For us, what you do is an act of courage.”