“I don’t believe in giving people a voice as people already have a voice. I believe in giving them a microphone to tell their story” says Martha M. Foster the founder, President and CEO of Living Earth Television and member of WiserEarth.org. A lifelong documentary curator and anthropologist, Martha’s work focuses on helping people understand each other across cultural borders.

Martha believes that documentary films have a tremendous role to play in creating a sustainable planet for us all.
“Often film makers don’t have a great depth in terms of cultural knowledge and anthropologists aren’t generally great communicators– my job is to help bridge the two”, Martha explains.
“I believe that every person has a story, every problem has a solution and every village has a television” she says.

Documentaries can show real situations where problems are being solved.

LETV has been lucky enough to secure some amazing environmental films made in China which would otherwise never be seen. “The thing that binds these documentaries together”, says Martha “is that they highlight the fact that even though environmental problems appear in many different places in the world, the solutions that are being tried and tested could be applied in our own villages and towns”.

LETV Logo

One of LETV’s programs, Earth Works is already providing models for solving problems like hunger relief and the provision of shelter, sustainable economies, education, environmental conservation and restoration, and the protection of wildlife. The aim is to expand programs such as these.

What’s next for LETV?

Next year will see talks with LinkTV and funders helping LETV bring in more short as well as longer form documentaries from China. They are also expanding the geographic focus by actively creating the groundwork for programming from India and also hopefully bringing some programming from Brazil.

“There are many interesting things going on in China that are not known publicly. The country is making big strides in trying to understand what is going on. It is starting to address a lot of the environmental issues it is facing”, says Martha. “And they are also becoming more interested in sharing what they doing”.

In the end, she sees that WiserEarth and LETV are working with a similar visions. She explains further: “Like WiserEarth, LETV is helping to connect those who are living peacefully and sustainably, to share solutions with those who are seeking them.”

If you are interested in Martha’s work, please do contact her: www.wiserearth.org/user/MarthaF

Some of the groups Martha is a member of: Tamera Peace Research Center, Global Oneness Project and The Culture of Peace Initiative

Living Earth TV Page on WiserEarth: http://bit.ly/rF4SyD.

We have incredible opportunities to create change around us when we come together and shine a light on people and projects like Martha and her incredible work with LETV. Join us and share your support as we campaign to help the WiserEarth network continue to grow and flourish.

Co-edited by Becky Band Jain. Becky is a nonprofit communications specialist and blogs at www.BeckyBlab.com. She spent the last five years living in India and she’s now based in New York. She’s a dedicated yoga and meditation practitioner and a member of WiserEarth. She is passionate about ICTD and new media.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Print Friendly Print Friendly

Tags: