M-Net and DStv join broadcasters in over 20 countries to share in Pangea Day a four-hour programme of short films, music and talks from some of the most inspirational people in the world, broadcast simultaneously on television, webcast and mobile phones. This event which takes place on Saturday, 10 May, will be screened on M-Net’s MagicWorld channel, which is available on various DStv bouquets, including DStv Compact, which now has more than 285 000 subscribers, and the highly affordable DStv Easyview.

The worldwide broadcast starts at 18:00 GMT on May 10, 2008, live from the Pyramids in Cairo; Jali Gardens in Kigali, Kenya; Somerset House in London; Sony Studios in Los Angeles; the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Mumbai; and Morro da Urca in Rio de Janeiro. The entire programme will be broadcast – in seven languages – to millions of people worldwide. The South African broadcast starts live on M-Net’s MagicWorld on DStv from 20:00 Central African Time on Saturday, 10 May. It will be repeated on Sunday, 11 May, at 13:00 and will be available to all subscribers in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The organisers of Pangea Day describe it as the “world’s first global campfire” and, according to Aletta Alberts, Head of Content at DStv, it was an obvious move for Africa’s leading pay television network to became part of this international drive.

M-Net’s Director of Channels, Jan du Plessis, adds that M-Net is honoured to be part of such an exceptional global broadcasting event.

Pangea Day originated as the vision of Egyptian filmmaker Jehane Noujaim. In 2006 she won the TED Prize, an award granted at the annual Technology Entertainment Design Conference in California, for which she was granted $100,000 and more importantly, a wish to change the world. Her wish was to create a day in which the world came together through film. “I don't know if a film can change the world”, she said in her acceptance speech, “but I believe it has the ability to take you across borders, into another world, and maybe that has the ability to transform.”

The event was named Pangea for the super-continent that existed about 250 million years ago, before it separated into the current continents. Celebrities who signed on to serve on the advisory board that shepherded Pangea Day into existence include Goldie Hawn, director JJ Abrams, Dave Stewart, Bob Geldof, Paul Simon, Meg Ryan, Cameron Diaz, Alan Cumming, director Richard Curtis, Forest Whitaker, Lawrence Bender, and many others.

The 24 short films featured in the broadcast were made by ordinary people, over 2500 of them from over 100 countries, who uploaded their videos to the Pangea site. They range from two to fifteen minutes and they all have a powerful story to tell about what it means to be human. There will also be videos produced by professional filmmakers and the programme includes a dozen or so powerful three-minutes inspiring talks by planetary scientist Carolyn Porco, anthropologist Donald Brown, actor Khaled Aboul Naga, African entrepreneur June Arunga, and others, including Queen Noor and CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour. There will also be live music, from Gilberto Gil and Hypernova and from Bob Geldof, Rokia Traore, Mohamed Mounir and Eurythmics' singer Dave Stewart.

Visit the official website at www.pangeaday.org for information on the films and the day’s programme.