Aleta Chappelle from Moon Shadow Films said she was inspired by the documentary. “It is so well put together and I love the many messages it conveys. It made me think how I can do more for the greater good of those who have so little.”

Chappelle, who has worked on The Godfather: Part III and Nutty Professor, was also impressed by the work the film is doing for charity, saying she was excited to be representing More 4 Me at this year’s Cannes Film Market.

The film recently opened the weekend of the Australian Film Festival during which organisers compared it to the work of Michael Moore.

Last year the documentary also won the Times Square Audience Award for Best Documentary at the New York City International Film Festival.

In the face of the global financial crisis, More 4 Me follows writer/director Lincoln Fenner as he travels across five continents in search of why we constantly crave for ‘more’.

From the outset, Fenner set a mandate to donate 75% of the film’s profits to the aid organisations (including Oxfam) in the film. As a result, last year Creation Box Films Pty Ltd was able to donate AUD$11,000 across the five major charities featured in the film.

More 4 Me will screen at the Cannes Film Market (Palais F) at 1730 (5:30pm) on 23 May 2012.

The agreement with Pineapple Media includes television broadcasting rights in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.

Writer/Director Lincoln Fenner made the announcement at the film’s Sydney premiere. More 4 Me opened the weekend of the recent Australian Film Festival at the Randwick Ritz Cinema ahead of the AACTA winner Red Dog.

Pineapple Media Managing Director, Richard Attieh said he was “proud to be working with Lincoln and the team at Creation Box Films on a project which so brilliantly challenges social convention”.

Attieh also praised the inspirational film’s accolades to date – including the Times Square Audience Award for Best Documentary at the New York City International Film Festival – saying they are well deserved.

According to Attieh, Pineapple Media found a natural alignment with Fenner and his position on global poverty, to a point where they couldn’t help but get on board.

In the face of the global financial crisis, cinematographer Andrew Hooper follows Fenner as he travels across five continents in search of why we constantly crave for ‘more’.

From the outset, Fenner set a mandate to donate 75% of the film’s profits to the aid organisations (including Oxfam) in the film. As a result Creation Box Films Pty Ltd was able to donate AUD$11,000 to the five major charities featured in the film in 2011 alone.

Says Fenner: “We are very excited about More 4 Me being distributed for broadcast across Australia, NZ and the UK by Pineapple Media. The film has gathered so much momentum that we have already received distributor enquiries from around the world, and there are still more opportunities arising every day.”

About More 4 Me

In the face of the global financial crisis, More 4 Me follows Lincoln Fenner (writer/director) as he travels around the world to ask the question, “What’s the one thing we can’t live without?”

The documentary journeys across five continents questioning why we have a constant craving for ‘more’. New York, London, Tokyo, Los Angeles and Perth are contrasted with Kenyan orphanages and Nairobi slums, as Fenner interviews everyone from actors and models, to orphans and street sweepers.

The story takes viewers from the home of Hollywood actor Vincent Jerosa (Carlito’s Way, Crocodile Dundee II), to remote Cambodian villages with the leading lady of the Australian stage, Marina Prior (Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables).

The stirring soundtrack is the work of ARIA award-winning musician Michael Allen (Things of Stone and Wood).

75% of the film’s profits are being donated to the aid organisations featured in the film, including World Vision, Oxfam, Compassion, Samaritan’s Purse and One Laptop Per Child.

The actors had the opportunity to see Oxfam’s work first hand in a visit to Cambodia earlier this year.

Oxfam Unwrapped is a nifty scheme where you buy your friends and family ‘gifts’ that Oxfam uses in its work with poor communities around the world – like goats, piglets and wells – while the recipient receives a quirky card explaining how their present is helping others.

In a video message of support for Oxfam Unwrapped, Mia Wasikowska talks about the difference that the gift of a calf, can make to communities in Cambodia.

“In Cambodia, a cow is a simple solution that can dramatically change the lives of people in poverty. Cows provide manure that can be sold or used to fertilise crops. They also help plough fields and their calves can be sold to other families.

“In Australia you can feel so removed from the situations that poor people overseas are facing, but I’ve had the chance to see how simple it can be to help someone have a better future,” Mia said.

Anna Torv uses her video message of support to promote the water filter jar – priced at $14 – which allows communities to have clean water for drinking and cooking.

“As an actress I’ve had the opportunity to work with many creative people, but none were creative enough to come up with a water filter jar which is simply genius. Oxfam gives poor communities a simple bucket that is fitted with a tiny filter and a hose, which allows people to drink clean water and to stay healthy and free of disease.

“Oxfam’s water filter jar is a simple contraption that changes lives, and you can support this work through Oxfam Unwrapped,” Anna said.

New gifts on offer this year through Oxfam Unwrapped include the humble blanket, which can become an essential survival tool after a natural disaster.

With prices ranging from $10 for a chicken to $3,000 for a water quality testing kit (invaluable during a natural disaster), you can assist Oxfam’s work no matter what your budget!

Check out the full Oxfam Unwrapped gift range

Check out the entire Oxfam Unwrapped gift range or read more about how Unwrapped works.

For every subscription you buy, The Age wil donate an Unwrapped gift! So while you catch up on the best local, national and international news, and all the latest in sport, business, fashion and food, you’ll also be helping someone who really needs it.

Find out more

Once again this year, Mobile Muster are offering you to chance to recycle your old mobile and accessories to help families living in poverty.

For every two handsets recycled MobileMuster will buy a chicken from Oxfam Unwrapped!

Each chicken provides a family with enough eggs to eat and sell at the markets, providing food and income for the family.

Mobiles, batteries and all accessories accepted. This offer runs from 1 November to 31 January 2012.

HOW TO RECYCLE

1. Drop them off at your nearest collection point

or

2. Post them in using Mobile Muster’s free post mailing label or picking up a recycling satchel from your nearest Australia Post.

Find out more

We’ve talked the talk. Now it’s time for us to walk the walk. Oxfam TRAILWALKER is yet another way for you to get involved and help Oxfam raise vital funds.

The 100km endurance event is held in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and challenges teams of four to complete the trail in less than 48 hours.

We’ve been training like fiends for the Melbourne event – check out our teamspace page! And if you’re walking or volunteering, keep an eye out for us on the trail.

To find out more about how you can get involved, check out the volunteer section of the Melbourne Trailwalker website.

Yours,
Duck

Meet the team

Meet the Unwrapped Trailwalker team

Octavio is hooves down the most arrogant goat I’ve ever met. I really don’t like him. He has not once asked me a single question about myself. Bianca reckons I should give him a chance because he’s insecure, but all I see is an ego-centric fool.

Thankfully, it turns out that he’s not living with us; he has been given to a family a little further down the road.  But we still have to see him around the village when we go out.

Alberto, who is the eldest child in the family at 15, is our main carer. Every morning he takes Bianca and I to a different area around the village so that we can eat grass and leaves. Then he takes us back home for rest and a drink at about 9.30am. Then he takes us out and we graze a bit more. How good is my life? After that Alberto goes to school and Bianca and I just hang out and chat. This is him:

Photo: Joel Chiziane/OxfamAUS

Alberto wants to be an English teacher when he grows up. I kinda get the sense that he’s hoping we’ll help him to do this. I don’t really know how though, so I just smile whenever he talks to us. Then I go on eating grass.

He really is good to us and takes care of us when we’re away from the house. This morning we were eating some leaves from a low lying branch of a mango tree, that incidentally were a bit dry, and Octavio came up, head-butted Bianca, and snatched the branch away from me! Alberto came rushing up a shooed Octavio away and then stood next to us so that we could finish. Octavio glared at us for a while and then walked off.

I was so angry at Octavio, what a pig! But I was even angrier at myself because even though I found myself posing when he was staring at us. Why would I do that?

I’ve gotta dash – my hooves are getting sore typing on this tiny keyboard.

xoxo

Luisa

Oxfam Australia is launching its own 12 days of Christmas online campaign to highlight the gift of giving to those less fortunate around the world.

On the first 12 days of December, Oxfam Unwrapped will be posting on the Oxfam website witty messages of support for the Oxfam Unwrapped program from actress Anna Torv and a list of renowned comedians including Arj Barker, Jason Byrne, Josh Thomas, Sam Simons, Aamen Rahman, Nina Conti, Tim Vine, Jon Richardson, Jimeoin and Tom Gleeson – asking Australians to buy a Christmas gift that gives twice.

Oxfam Unwrapped offers over 40 memorable gift ideas, from buying a goat for a family in Mozambique, to sewing classes for women in South Africa that will help transform the life of people living in poverty.

When someone buys an Oxfam Unwrapped gift, the donation helps support Oxfam Australia’s life-changing work around the world, while they receive a memorable gift card explaining how their special gift is helping others

Kicking off the campaign will be Australian actress Anna Torv. Internationally known for her role as FBI agent Olivia Dunham in the Emmy nominated television series Fringe, Anna Torv said that she hoped Australians will get behind the Oxfam Unwrapped Christmas range.

“Christmas is about putting a smile on people’s faces – not only friends and family but also those less fortunate. Unwrapped helps you do both.

“I often spend a lot of time trying to choose gifts for people that I know don’t need that extra T-shirt or pair of socks or whatever it is I finally decide to purchase…Oxfam Unwrapped is a way for me to do something selfless…and I get to chuckle when they find out I bought them a pile of poo,” Ms Torv said.

The Oxfam Unwrapped 12 Days of Christmas campaign gets under way with an online video featuring Anna attempting to wrap a goat.

Oxfam Australia spokesperson Leigh Stewart hoped the video would help spread the word about Oxfam Unwrapped.

“We had great support over the past years, and we’re hoping that this will help get the word out to a much wider audience,” Ms Stewart said.

“The goat and all of the Unwrapped gifts are real items that we use to fight poverty, and at home the Unwrapped range is a fun way to engage people with serious development issues.”

“We are absolutely delighted that Anna Torv has come on board to help us the spread the world and make a few people laugh in the process.”

See Anna Torv attempt to wrap a goat

To see the full Oxfam Unwrapped range visit www.oxfamunwrapped.com.au and for media enquiries contact Oxfam Australia Media Coordinator Charlotte Greig on 0404 111 919 or email charlotteg@oxfam.org.au

Oxfam Unwrapped is on the search to find Oxfam Australia’s next top animal to help in the fight against poverty and injustice. You can vote for your favourite contestant by logging onto the Oxfam Unwrapped website.

Oxfam Unwrapped gift cards provide a range of 44 truly unique Christmas gifts that let you give something special to your friends and family, and most importantly, something to those less fortunate around the world.

We’ve scoured the globe, interviewing thousands of hopeful animals, to narrow the field to just seven lucky finalists:

Always a crowd favourite, the goat is helping families in Mozambique. For $39 an Oxfam goat can save a family from poverty – they can breed to create more goats, they can be milked for the family’s nutrition, and they can even be sold to pay for school fees or tools. It’s the perfect gift for the person who has lots that also gives to those who have little.

Get quacking and vote for the Oxfam duck. A $20 duck will a provide family in Mozambique with eggs that they can eat and sell at the market. These eggs can turn into more ducks, which in turn produce more eggs! Many of the people who receive a duck are carers for family members, orphans or vulnerable children affected by HIV and AIDS. The gift of a duck really makes a huge difference to the entire family.

In a Christmas flutter? Why not take a gamble with a $10 Oxfam chicken that can help families in Laos generate much-needed income. In Laos, Oxfam Australia works to increase access to food by providing families with the initial funds to buy chickens. Households can then use eggs to earn an income at the market, or to eat. And, if the chickens breed, families get more chickens …and more eggs … and more chickens.

Don’t get the wool pulled over yours eyes with useless gifts, instead give an Oxfam lamb? Rearing sheep is an excellent income-generating activity in the Funhalouro district of Mozambique. But since the civil war, which ended in 1992, sheep have become rare and expensive. The gift of a lamb for $55 will go towards increasing the lamb population in this region, which can be bred and sold at local markets.

Take the oink out of Christmas shopping and give and Oxfam piglet for $55 that will help a family in Malawi. A Oxfam pig will help fertilise crops, breed with other pigs to create baby pigs, and will eagerly dispose of any food scraps.

For those who are difficult to buy for, why not give an Oxfam donkey for $150, and help transform the life of a village in Mozambique. They last longer than socks and jocks, they can carry produce to market, plus they don’t get lost in the washing machine!

Or better still give an Oxfam cow! The humble cow is one of the world’s biggest weapons in the fight against poverty. This gift goes towards buying a cow to provide manure, milk, transportation and the ability to cultivate a herd. The money from selling milk is an important supplement to a poor family’s income. Men and women who become skilled milkers can earn a reasonable living. An added benefit is that families are able to use the cow dung as organic fertilizer for their home gardens, and in some cases they can sell it to earn a living.

Vote for your favourite animal in Oxfam Unwrapped’s next top animal challenge go to:
http://www.oxfamunwrapped.com.au/blog/oxfam-unwrapped-next-top-animal/

For more information or to purchase a gift card please go to www.oxfamunwrapped.com.au. Cards are also available at Oxfam shops or by calling 1800 034 0 34.

For more media information, please contact: Charlotte Greig, ph 0404 111 919 Charlotteg@oxfam.org.au