Nashville, Tennessee - Award-winning poet and Spoken Word Artist, Steve Connell, and prolific producer of groundbreaking multimedia, President, CEO & Chief Creative of Go West Creative Group, David Fischette, have captured the attention of the UN Women with their latest Spoken Cinema™ project, "We Are the Lions," a global anti-violence movement that launched earlier this month.
This Spoken Cinema™ project boldly invites men to be part of the solution to ending gender violence. Written and performed by Connell and produced by Fischette, the two deliver a powerful and raw message regarding violence in the five minute video.
Spoken Cinema™ is a collaborative partnership between Steve Connell and David Fischette. This new, live experiential platform customizes and communicates client messaging to large crowds through spoken word, an original cinematic score, dynamic animation and visuals, that when combined creates an immersive and engaging audience experience. It evokes an emotional and visceral response through a dramatic and strategic performance.
"We Are the Lions" project has captured the attention of many around the world, including the UN Women. On August 11th, Go West's Fischette joined the UN in New York as a panelist discussing gender equality as the UN showcased the video during the event.
"Working with boys and men on gender equality and ending culture of violence is crucial for transforming humanity today and for a peaceful and gender equal tomorrow," said Ravi Karkara, UN Women Co-chair.
"This short film communicates this better than any other media piece I have seen."
The UN has also invited Fischette and Connell to present the full "We are the Lions" Spoken Cinema™ media experience live during The International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on November 25th. The event will aim to raise public awareness and mobilizing people everywhere to bring about change.
"I've always believed that artists are also activists and that art is at its best when it inspires us to make changes in ourselves or the world around us," said Steve Connell, author of the piece. "I was grateful for this opportunity to use my voice to speak on behalf of the many voices lost to violence. Hopefully the piece can help to shift the perception that domestic violence should ever be considered solely a woman's issue."
Connell's performance in November will be among an already impressive list of pieces written and performed by the poet. Connell has performed for such luminaries as Oprah Winfrey, Maya Angelou, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Quincy Jones. In 2009, he was asked to perform in Washington, DC as part of the Inaugural Celebration for President Obama and has been invited twice to the White House, performing most recently a new piece "Watch Close" as part of a national summit on human trafficking.
A creative force in the entertainment industry, video producer and Go West Creative Group CEO & Chief Creative, David Fischette has garnered an impressive collection of awards including the coveted "Humanitarian Award" for his production of the film "Gods of Accident" which exposes the far reaching effects of Human Trafficking and the "Gala Award" for his co-creation with Connell of Spoken Cinema™, a platform that is changing the landscape of the industry. Fischette and Connell have engineered larger-than-life presentations for various corporate companies including Farmers Insurance, L'Oreal, Petco, Sonic, Transamerica and more.
"Once in a while we have the opportunity to use our creativity to create something truly extraordinary, something that makes an impact, something that can make a difference," said David Fischette. "We realized that this piece isn't just for our city, it's something the entire world needs to see."