'Acting Together on the World Stage' creators honored with Telly Award

Documentary highlights artists and peacebuilders in conflict zones

A scene from the film

Cynthia Cohen and Allison Lund are among the winners of the 33rd Annual Telly Awards competition for their film, “Acting Together on the World Stage.”

Cohen is the director of Brandeis’ Program in Peacebuilding and the Arts and Lund is an award-winning Boston-area filmmaker. They are co-creators of the feature-length documentary film that highlights courageous and creative artists and peacebuilders working in conflict regions, describes exemplary peacebuilding performances and offers tools for the creative transformation of violence. Theater Without Borders, a virtual network of artists committed to international theater exchange, collaborated on the Acting Together project..

The film features stories of theatrical and ritual performances from conflict zones including Uganda, Peru, Cambodia and New Orleans. It includes compelling scenes from performances and candid commentary from several leading international theatre artists, including Dijana Milosevic of Dah Teatar in Belgrade, Serbia; John O’Neal of Junebug Theater in New Orleans, US; and Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani, of Lima, Peru.

“Acting Together on the World Stage” will be screened at 12:30 p.m. Friday, June 22, in the community room of the Boston Foundation, 75 Arlington St., South Boston 10th floor. A post-screening conversation will feature Cohen; Kathleen Bitetti, artist and policy expert; and Charles Mulekwa, a playwright and theater director from Uganda who is featured in the film.

“The film highlights the power of performance to support communities to speak truth to power, to build bridges across differences, and to address painful historical legacies,” Cohen said.

Less than 10 percent of the 13,000 Telly entrants, coming from all 50 states and numerous other countries, won honors. The Telly Award is the best known and most prestigious professional video industry award.

Since it was released in July, 2011, “Acting Together” has been screened in more than 15 countries, on every continent, and in community and university settings throughout the United States.

The Boston screening is free and open to the public. For more information, please visit the Peacebuilding and the Arts page.