“We Are the World”

Photo credit: Robert R. Roberts Photography
Featured photo by Janet Donovan

On the Occasion of the 40th Anniversary of “We Are the World/USA for Africa, H.H. Leonard – Founder/CEO, The “O” Street Mansion and Paul J. Cohn – Chairman, The “O” Street Museum, hosted the DC Premiere of  “Stand Together As One… The Famine. The Music. The Impact.”

Paul J. Cohn and H. H. Leonard

“It is a privilege to welcome you here tonight for the premiere,  a film that speaks to the heart of what we believe at The O Museum in the Mansion. Music, storytelling, and art are not just forms of expression, but powerful tools to affect change,” said H.H. Leonard.  “At the O, we encourage everyone who enters to dare to be different, to see the world not as it is, but as it could be, and to work towards this vision. Music and film have the ability to connect us in ways that nothing else can, to remind us of our shared humanity, of the responsibility we have to one another. And as this film so beautifully illustrates, when we stand together, we can create miracles.”

“Marcia Thomas,  Executive Director of USA for Africa, is here,” Leonard added. “In 2020, she was the recipient of the Mrs. Rosa Park’s humanitarian award for her unwavering commitment to making sure that the world continues to feed the hungry, serve the underserved, and inspire change. In today’s world, she has raised $220 million and very few people know it was her decision making that made sure that all of this money went to those in need. The song We Are The World was the brainchild of Harry Belafonte, a dear friend of Mrs. Rosa Parks. Mr. Belafonte visited Mrs. Parks many times here, and I leave you with a story about them.

Marcia Thomas. Co-producer/director

Dr. Mark Luther King was a close friend of Mrs. Parks. She was the one that persuaded him to become the head of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, believing that he was the anointed one. He refused her several times until she said, ‘Martin, you’re new in town. No one has any dirt on you. You have to do this.’ When Dr. King was assassinated, Mrs. Parks was so devastated she could not function. Harry Belafonte called telling her he had booked a hotel room for her for the funeral, and she could not stop crying when they talked. ‘I can’t go. I’m too distraught.’  Harry listened to her and said, ‘I’m picking you up in two days in my private jet. We’ll go together. I’ll prop you up.’  And he did. That was Harry. He always did the right thing. We need you all to do the right thing. Now. We need to seize the moment. I sincerely hope that after seeing this film that was made by Chip with no funds, that you’ll help him find places for him to show this great film. Mrs. Parks once said, ‘Memories of our lives, of our works will continue in others tonight.’  We honor that truth. May this film and this moment be more than just a reflection of histories. May it be a spark to what’s to come and what we can do.”

Recorded and written by “The King of Pop,” Michael Jackson, and his longtime friend, Award-winning singer/songwriter/producer, Lionel Richie, and produced by the iconic Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian, “We Are the World/USA for Africa,” with its illustrious participants, including Harry Belafonte, Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Diana Ross, Cyndi Lauper, Paul Simon, Tina Turner, Kenny Rogers, James Ingram, Al Jarreau, and other superstar artists, became one of the best-selling singles of all time, raising over $150 Million Dollars to combat pain, hunger, and poverty in Africa, Ethiopia, and the United States.

Chip Duncan, co-producer/director: Chairman, Duncan Entertainment

“There’s a very key person here I want to introduce to you. His name is Salim Amin. Salim has been the partner in this journey all the way through his father Muhammad who was killed in a terrorist plane crash in 1996.  Muhammad Amin shot the footage of the famine that you’re going to see tonight, and it all comes from his archive. And so he and I have had the privilege of screening this film twice previously, once did the London School of Economics in late October and two weeks ago in Budapest, Hungary. So the first US screening is tonight. You’ll be the first people to see it, which is a lot of fun.”

Salim Amin, Chairman, Camerapix.  Co-producer/director

“Before Ethiopia, my father was ruthless,” Salim acknowledged.  “He was a ruthless journalist, not ruthless as a person, but there was nothing that he would not do to get a world exclusive. He covered every major story in Africa in the 20th century. Every photo, every news report that came out was his, and he was relentless. Our archive is seven and a half million images. So in a very short life he clicked seven and a half million images in basically 40 years. This was his passion. This was what he loved doing.

He spent probably five or six years documenting the famine because he wanted to make sure people didn’t forget. He understood even back then how fickle the news cycle was and how quickly people would move on. So he made documentary after documentary to try and make sure that people didn’t forget what was happening in Ethiopia and that it wouldn’t happen again. And he had never been that absorbed in a story before. So that is how that changed him. And Ethiopia was very close to his heart. Every major event in his life was linked to Ethiopia. He lost his arm there. He died in the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash.

I think we all do it trying to do the best that we can to tell the stories of people that don’t have a voice. And I’m hoping that his work will continue to inspire generations of young journalists, especially at a time, as we said earlier, at a time when the world is in a very bad place at the moment and we need good journalism and we need good activism and we need people to stand together as well.” Salim Amin