VARIOUS : FILM STAR DANNY GLOVER VISITS AID PROJECTS AS THE UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME'S FIRST GOODWILL AMBASSADOR

Record ID: 336928

  • Title: VARIOUS : FILM STAR DANNY GLOVER VISITS AID PROJECTS AS THE UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME'S FIRST GOODWILL AMBASSADOR
  • Date: 13th April 1999
  • Summary: (VARIOUS LOCATIONS , BURKINA FASO) (APRIL 10-11, 1999) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) (USA, CALIFORNIA, HOLLYWOOD) 1. ACTOR DANNY GLOVER LEAVING HIS HAND - AND FOOTPRINTS OUTSIDE MANN'S CHINESE THEATER IN HOLLYWOOD 2. ACTOR MEL GIBSON IN AUDIENCE WATCHING AND CLAPPING 3. GLOVER WITH RENE RUSSO 4. POSTER ADVERTISING "LETHAL WEAPON 4"
  • Embargoed: 28th April 1999 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: VARIOUS LOCATIONS, (USA, CALIFORNIA ,HOLLYWOOD) AND BURKINA FASO
  • City:
  • Country: AFRICA USA Burkina Faso United States
  • Reuters ID: LVAEYRU9TI680HGL9E6IWCG23ALN
  • Story Text: He has his hand and foot prints embedded in the
    sidewalk outside Mann's Chinese Theater in Hollywood...One
    of his good buddies is Mel Gibson and he keeps company with
    the likes of Rene Russo and Joe Pesci...He's rich, he's
    famous and he's acted in over 30 films...

    But Danny Glover is not your average movie star...

    Best known for his antics as Detective Murtagh in the
    wildly popular "Lethal Weapon" series of films, Glover
    prefers to call himself an activist - particularly when it
    comes to Africa, a continent he has visited dozens of times.

    In this spirit, the 51-year old actor recently became
    the United Nations Development Programme's first Goodwill
    Ambassador.

    The posting gives Glover the opportunity to visit
    UNDP-sponsored projects and events around the world.He says
    the position puts him in contact with people "who don't
    often have the stated answer or who have not had the
    practiced answer - the answer that you find most pundits
    have - when they get among themselves and begin to talk
    about the problem.But, he adds " with other people, who
    have other ideas about this process so that I'm opened up
    now to a vast array of ideas and thoughts about what do we
    do and what are the components of development."
    Glover was given the chance to do exactly that during
    a recent visit to Burkina Faso.On this small plot of land
    outside of the capital, Ouagadougou, the Association of
    Women Foresters of Burkina Faso plant and nurture endangered
    species of trees.

    The project is aimed at educating women, youth and
    children about the importance of sustaining biodiversity.

    The UNDP helps fund the project and as Goodwill
    Ambassador, Glover was invited to tour the tree nursery and
    participate in the chores of the day."For me, to watch this
    is something that I get a great deal of satisfaction from.

    Cause I spent about ten years of my life involved with
    community action programs, working with them, going to
    community boards, forming community boards, evaluating
    programs, assessing how well they do - did - and offering in
    some sort of assistance what I could, or finding assistance
    to help those programs."
    UNDP officials were thrilled with the visit.

    Sylvanna Nzirorera says "I'm quite happy, absolutely happy.

    This was successful visit, because here he could meet the
    officials and when you meet this kind of people you can tell
    them: 'Now do put the stress on poverty eradication.'"
    While in Burkina Faso, Glover also attended the
    Pan-African Film and Television Festival, FESPACO.At a
    special UNDP press conference, he talked about the
    international distribution of films - particularly in the
    United States.

    Glover also had some advice for Africa's film
    industry."I would like to think that the course is, there's
    a connection between 'Shakespeare in Love' and American
    audiences, you know.But, I'll tell you what - the industry
    has pushed that connection in such a way that it's made
    British films available in such a way to American audiences.

    I want to do the same thing in terms of African films."
    Glover has already made good on this goal.On his last
    day at FESPACO in Burkina Faso, he penned a deal with
    African filmmakers to create a new company - AmerAfric
    Films.

    The company will aid the production, distribution and
    exhibition of African films in Africa and the United States.

    Award-winning Kenyan filmmaker Anne Mungai and Glover
    are in the midst of discussions for possible collaboration
    on her new movie, "The Curing Trees."
    But for all the Hollywood glitz that surrounds this
    internationally-acclaimed actor, Danny Glover has no
    pretensions about his star status."I'd love to be a
    magician...I'm not...I think that I'm quite ordinary, in a
    sense, and that, whenever I think of myself as being other
    than something that's ordinary, I'm of little service not
    only to myself but to others as well."
    For those of us who have seen him on stage and on the
    big screen for over three decades, Danny Glover seems
    anything but ordinary.


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