New York/Geneva/Cannes, 16 May 2006 — Renowned directors Jane Campion and Gaspar Noe have trained their lenses on a new cast of stars: The United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals.

Campion and Noe will present at the 59th Cannes Festival on 25 May two short films, the first and second segments of “8,” an eight-part feature about the goals set forth by the UN to address the most pressing social, economic, health and environmental challenges of our time. The collaborative effort of eight world-class filmmakers, “8” is produced by LDM Productions in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and is set for wide release in early 2007.

The Millennium Development Goals—MDGs for short—set specific targets for fighting poverty, discrimination and disease and bolstering education, the environment and health. Established by UN member states in 2000, the Goals are to be met by 2015.

“The Millennium Development Goals catch the imagination of people because they make development real,” says UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis. “Development is about mothers not dying when they give birth, about children surviving their first years; about getting every child into primary school, making sure that people have access to clean water where they live.”

Campion, for one, is used to achieving lofty goals. The first-ever woman to win the prestigious Palme d’Or at Cannes--for “The Piano” in 1993, which also racked up three Oscars—the New Zealand native also won in her Cannes debut, with the short film ‘Peel’ in 1986.  She won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1990 for “An Angel At My Table.” “In the Cut” (2003) was Campion’s most recent feature.

Directors were given carte blanche in addressing the specific Millennium Goal they chose. Campion’s 17-minute segment, shot in Australia, is titled “The Water Diary.”

“Dealing with environmental sustainability was very interesting,” she says. “What we came down to very quickly was that without water, there is no life. Then it was a matter of, how do you do this without being preachy or too overtly political? How do you do it in a very gentle, consciousness-raising way--through a story? I decided to use the device of a child keeping a diary on how the drought affects her family, neighbours, animals and her own life.”

Noe knows Cannes, too. His film “Irreversible” competed there in 2002, also appearing at Sundance in 2003. His first feature film, “I Stand Alone,” was screened at Critics’ Week in Cannes in 1998, and his third film, “Carne,” won the Critics’ Week prize in 1991.

For “8”, Argentine-born Noe focused on HIV/AIDS, trekking to Burkina Faso to shoot his segment, “SIDA.” “Cinema cannot make the world better,” warns the France-based director, “but more aware, yes.” He sees his 17-minute segment as “an act of communicating the abuse of some and the pain of others.”

In focusing on the MDGs, the filmmakers contributing to “8” are shining light on problems that truly affect the world. Today, 115 million children still lack access to primary education. More than 12,000 people are infected by HIV every day. Malnutrition afflicts 800 million people, and more than a billion survive on less than a dollar a day. Every three seconds, poverty kills a child who should have lived.  In sub-Saharan Africa, women have one chance in 16 of dying during childbirth; in Europe this number is one in 2000.

UNDP and its partners are making progress. Over a decade, life expectancy has risen by two years in developing countries, literacy is up to 76% from 70% of the population, and the extreme poverty that affected 28% of the world’s people in 1990 is now down to 21%. But much remains to be done to reach the MDGs. Harnessing the creativity and talent in the world of cinema is one way UNDP can reach millions of people and tap their energies to overcome poverty, hunger, illiteracy, disease, environmental degradation and gender discrimination.

The next filmmaker to shoot a segment for “8” will be Jan Kounen, director of the acclaimed documentary “Darshan,” which appeared in 2005 at Cannes. Born in the Netherlands, Kounen made his first feature film, “Dobermann,” in 1995 at the age of 31. Set to begin filming in June in the Peruvian Amazon, Kounen will take on the topic of maternal health.

Jane Campion and Gaspar Noe will be at the Palais du Festival at 7.30 p.m. on 25 May for the “montee des marches” prior to the screening of their films.

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