I'm ductal concrete, it Director of Partnerships.

Welcome to our Revolution panel here at Ted 2014.

We're very happy to have some of the filmmakers of the have any award nominated documentary that square with us.

We have John Noujaim and Kareema Mayer joining us here at Ted and joining us via Skype or some other people that are actually in the midst of this revolution and ideas and spread of social media.

We have body Shahab, an art historian calling in from Cairo.

Hello, Bhaiya way have Ed do photojournalist who's actually joining us from the Crimea place.

That little little news is happening there.

E we can actually keep you on the whole time.

And I know you're in an interesting situation.

We have Anwar Dakhlallah, founder of FedEx Khartoum, and begin from the Sudan.

Good morning on where?

And lastly, we have Brian Reese, who's the real time news editor from mashable who actually is kind of assembles news through the the the outflow of social media and citizen reporting.

And so I'm gonna start with Johanna Mayor obviously that with coverage of the Tour square, the revolution in Egypt seems like it was the the big on the tipping point of social media and people kind of finding a voice and sharing ideas and sharing stories, which is such a powerful part of your film.

Could you talk a little bit about how that came together?

Well, I think here in the States and around the world, what you see is you see the biggest headline you know, you see the bloodiest battle, you see the election.

But you don't understand the human struggle that goes on and that's been this way in history.

I mean, Karim calls that we know it is the greatest hits of change, you know?

I mean, you see, basically Nelson Mandela, um, you know, Gandhi liberating India.

You see Martin Luther King sing?

I have a dream, but you don't see how hard it was to get there.

You don't see you know.

So what we what?

We feel like we live in a world where we live in the mythology of change, but we don't actually see the real stories of change.

So for us, you know, like many people, there was this kind of fairy tale where in 18 days Egyptians could come down take down a dictator and democracy would flourish overnight.

Most people left after that, and we found that a dedicated few amount of people who became representative of many of the characters in our film came back to that square and said, This is just the beginning and we're gonna keep going back to that square and keep trying to hold power accountable until we get the demands of our of the story we know that's possible for the future.

I think that's actually why we've had some of the support that we have has been from revolutionaries like we have Jodie Evans in the audience and Leggo sing.

And they saw the film and they saw this as an example of what it actually takes to make change, that it's on ongoing struggle, that rights are never given to you.

They're always taken.

And so our hope with making this film was to really follow the roller coaster ride of change which is still continuing today.

I actually like to bring in value at this point way talked a lot about social media and everybody always imagines twitter and tweets and everything else.

If you could talk a little bit about your senseless campaign in Cairo, both during the Revolution and after the Revolution, when things weren't happening.

It's almost like a social media using old forms.

Yeah, this was actually the case.

We were trying to create something on the street, but unfortunately, whatever we created on the street was directly erased.

So the strongest weapon we had was the Internet to upload these images and share them and share the stories.

So this was a game changer for us.

Even if you were covered on the street, even if somebody erased your message, were still able to share it with the rest of the world on why I like to jump to you on what you said up Tex Khartoum.

Spreading ideas in the Sudan has been something of a challenge.

Could you talk a little bit about your work there that depicts Khartoum says that kind of movement that attracted you in Sudan?

They have over 35 millions, the population, 60 over 60% of whom are you between 19 and 25 they were finding their way to express their passion, their ideas.

They want to be the sense of isolation that our country have because of the government, and you know it's qualities worldwide and so on.

We picked up like the wrong team for the conference in 2013.

It wasa knowledge into action on that's making you know, that security people on the shutdown event beauty getting that speakers on stage.

I think that social media has a big impact in Sudan on as as we get more and more connected ideas and you know, we have exposure toe Ted, telex, whatever.

We know the platform, I think I think things will change.

Definitely change.

We're now like, you know, observing what's happening.

What's going on Egypt in, you know, never.

Countries in Kenya has a labor that very rapid, um, tech ops going on.

We're tryingto live on Connect on, see what we can do in the future.

Let's jump to you just won the biggest stories happening on the planet right now.

Could you tell us a little about what's happening there and what you're seeing on the streets?

I didn't drive you right now.

Ukraine.

I could be a Russell right now.

You know where you are.

Just Crimea just voted to secede from Ukraine and Korea's A CZ.

Russia moves to annex Crimea from Ukraine.

What's gonna happen?

Who's for who's against it and what the implications are for the east or the West?

What?

Right now, I just came from milk from a military base where they pulled down Ukrainian flag flew up.

The Russians like what's gonna happen here?

Is there gonna be a conflict?

Is there?

I'm gonna be a surrender.

No one really knows.

So that's what I That's a cover.

It's been a really fluid situation, right?

I want to throw your question to you.

I was thinking about this this morning and the idea of everything about the Big Brother.

We had a session with the NSA here at Ted.

I kind of feel like what your work is doing.

It's almost reverse, Big Brother.

I feel like now people actually have the power to actually tell stories and kind of document and share and get them out there.

That's kind of driving.

What?

Your Your work is just kind of gathering stories as they're happening from from on the ground.

People could you talk a little about that process and how that's changing.

You know, when it comes to kind of political unrest and revolutions for people like myself who were in New York City or here in the States or in Europe or or I'd have to see them up off the ground.

You know, we don't know what's going on.

All those people are sharing and telling their stories from what they're seeing in their point of view.

So whenever something starts, when it's, you know, the S.

O s.

Venezuela move in Venezuela, the protest in Turkey, the euro, my down in Ukraine.

Uh, we always kind of zero in on the people who are tweeting the most around a certain hashtag so we can identify the leaders.

We identify those who were speaking on behalf of the people, and then we also kind of filter that in with people who are just taking photos.

You know, there was a great selfie that some protesters took it in Turkey the other day, and it's it's kind of the content like that.

People like myself could gather and tell a really, really compelling story.

Two people who don't live in the countries where things are happening so they understand what's going on the ground generally come back to you and the impact of the film in terms of the people in the film.

And I'm just kinda curious what the reaction has been.

Yeah, well, we that the reaction's been amazing.

I mean, we tried to make a very, very personal film because the deeper you get personally, the more global your story is.

And that is why the story, I think has been picked up in places all around the world has been released on Netflix over 50 countries.

And unfortunately, we haven't gotten the official permission to show it in Egypt yet.

But a TTE the same time it was nominated.

It was the first Egyptian, the first Egyptian film that was nominated, and so young people took it upon themselves, as they're doing every day.

You know, in many other ways, Thio get it off off line and share it.

And then we released a full quality version online, and so it's been shared over two million times.

Now are different being underground screenings and in Kiev, we've had protesters have taken the film themselves translated.

It also took and translated.

They put a Ukrainian subtitles and then a few days later they added a Ukrainian dubbed version and they had a screening in the mind.

Then they Skyped in our main characters from Cairo on had this incredible kind of conversation and then, you know, they were saying at the end, there, chanting, They're saying My Adan will not be free until Alami, then which is in Egypt, is free and that's all there is.

I think it's very representative off of a new kind of pattern we're seeing.

I mean, I know you.

We've run down circles in Cairo, tear gas before on you.

See now that the image of power has shifted, you know, way.

See the sea of people coming down, whether and and saying I am here to hear my voice and you see this now in Tahrir Square happen.

It's happening in my dad and Kiev.

It's happening in Caracas it's having in Bangkok, so we start to see that this is not just a regional issue.

Anymore is a global issue, and I think what's happening and what social media is doing is that for too long we've lived in a world where the story has been written by a strong man to us, to the strongman who wins writes the story.

Today we have the ability to say all of us have a voice, and all of us can contribute in the writing of our story.

And social media is provided that tool that's leveling the playing field.

And I think that every person who steps into that square as autumn, either main character says everyone who goes down and claims their rights and feels that sense of Austin ship will never go back.

Because once you start writing your own story, it's a It's a new form of oxygen for you.

You can't go back.

And and I think that it's so incredible to be able to share these stories at Ted at three sites like Mashable on As you were saying, If our stories can be written, if our stories are shut down, we're gonna write them on the walls if they whitewashing will be uploaded and will continue to get them out there.

So I think that governments that fail to realize what's happening, we'll face a lot of trouble and I want to go back to you for follow up in terms of your you're there to document what's happening and this idea of social media and people taking selfies and obviously documenting it in their own ways.

How does it have to contrast what you're doing with what people on the streets are doing?

And do they all kind of tell a story together?

So I work from the mainstream media, and I guess I'm antithesis of social know and like I think what it used to be was that for the media, there was kind of a disconnect between the people at media outlets and now what's really amazing social media Twitter, Facebook is that as a journalist, I can connect with normal people on the ground, and they can also connect with Mason.

It's interesting because it as a journalist, I was not to be more responsible because the moment I publish something people can call me out.

If I'm wrong, people can have an opinion immediately, and it's that 121 dot conversation that said, You know, when I'm on the ground covering something, I can find out exactly what's happening with millions of people in one scene, and that's a pretty amazing thing that didn't used to exist 56 years ago.

When I come back to you in terms of you mentioned that the stencils were actually a race quite quickly and then you're able to find an outlet for them online.

Was there any problem of them being expunged online?

Did you actually have any challenges with technology in terms of people purging things or not?

Really?

Not really.

But I want to comment on Jihan Spain.

We are so happy that she has.

She was able to document that period for us on then.

We were extremely disappointed when it was not released for the masses to see in the city because this is where it's most relevant.

This is where we want to keep the memory alive.

So what happened is that people started creating screenings in their houses and she can tell you more about it.

But what was beautiful is that no one wanted to watch it alone.

On the sense of wanting to relive the experience was what is so beautiful about it, too, to really share it with people who were actually there with you.

I really hope that you will get over the bureaucracy off screening it in our cinemas, and I would really love to see it with a lot of people around me in a cinema one day in Cairo.

Thank you, Thank you.

We're still working on it.

So we're still pushing through.

But meanwhile, so many young people have seen it and written that written us and social media is amazing because people are connecting on Twitter on hashtag the square.

And people from all of these squares around the world have translated You know, Ahmed saying We're looking for a conscience, you know, into dozens of different languages.

So that's been actually amazing.

See?

And what you know with what she's saying is what's happened with social media is that the gatekeepers are no longer in charge the way they used to be, you know, so that if people try to stop ideas from flowing in the kind of you know, in the pre digital mentality, it just creates a surge of people to rush that idea further.

And I think that what the this new method of communication that we're seeing from square to square is showing this this power that people feel today where one photo, one tweet 1111 stencil can change the conversation.

People feel this this power in their ability to write the story, and I think that that's a transformative force that we're just learning the power of today, right?

I'd like to bring you in, actually way have an establishment journalist, someone from New York Times with this idea of citizen journalism and the idea of again having authority or having proving the actually, something has to be fact to be in New York times versus a very like a handcrafted.

I just saw this on the street and I wrote it on my Facebook post, and it actually goes around the world.

There's a kind of truth to that that actually could never be found in a mainstream, fully vetted whenever all the processes that we actually put on it, could you talk a little bit about contrasting those different types of journalism that we're seeing today?

Sure, I think what's really interesting for us is, you know, we see this really lift in real time.

So whether you have people on the ground that are coordinating that they're going to go to a certain square, you know, we're watching.

We're almost right there in that crowd with you were taking the photos were collecting them were reading at the article as it goes on.

And so it's just really kind of real time journalism that lets people follow along as it's happening.

Um, you know, 10 10 years ago, when years ago you maybe get the story once a day, the nightly news, the morning paper.

So people really have a sense of as really these fast changing news events kind of shift.

And then the power kind of surges You.

You get a sense of really, really there on the ground in real time.

And so that's that's really fascinating for us here at home.

And what's also interesting is we're not just relying on reporters and journalists who are there in the ground.

You know, you kind of build up this network of activists.

You go with this network of organizer's and you build up that work of photographers who you can rely on to kind of share factual information.