Pangeaday First Global Laugh

Japan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9sPDTFmyiM
England: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhsiLbsXT-k

Pangea Day was a global event bringing the world together through film.

In 2006, filmmaker Jehane Noujaim won the TED Prize, an annual award granted at the TED Conference. She was granted $100,000, and more important, a wish to change the world. Her wish was to create a day in which the world came together through film. Pangea Day grew out of that wish.

Why? In a world where people are often divided by borders, difference, and conflict, it's easy to lose sight of what we all have in common. Pangea Day seeks to overcome that – to help people see themselves in others – through the power of film.

Starting at 18:00 GMT on May 10, 2008, locations in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro were linked for a live program of powerful films, live music, and visionary speakers. The entire program was broadcasted in seven languages to millions of people worldwide through the internet, television, and mobile phones.

The 24 short films featured were selected from an international competition that generated more than 2,500 submissions from over one hundred countries. The films were chosen based on their ability to inspire, transform, and allow us see the world through another person's eyes. Details on the Pangea Day films can be viewed here.

The program also included a number of exceptional speakers and musical performers. Queen Noor of Jordan, CNN's Christiane Amanpour, musician/activist Bob Geldof, founder of the Laughter Club movement Dr Madan Kataria and Iranian rock phenom Hypernova were among those taking part.

One of the most surprising and uplifting films was about the "laughter clubs" of India, headed by Dr. Madan Kataria, who hopes to establish 1 million of these clubs across the world. On Saturday, he and actress Goldie Hawn led the audience in several moments of roaring laughter across the planet. "When you laugh, you change," Kataria told the crowd. "And when you change, the whole world changes around you."

This was a historical moment. For the first time millions of people in 180 countries around the world joined energy and laughed together for world peace for 1 minute.