The ION International Film Festival is a touring festival that is dedicated to promoting independent film, documentary, animation, music video and movie trailers. Each year ION is held in a different international location in an effort to promote global awareness and unity. ION strives to bring awareness to individuals and organizations who are creating socially relevant films to positively impact our worlds. In an effort to fully engage an array of transglobal creativity the festival hopes to provide a forum for everyone’s ingenuity to be premiered.

This marks Shining’s third film festival award, and its African premiere! Michael always loved visiting Africa and seeing how much all the little children had that same rhythm he discovered back when he was a kid. We’d like to thank the ION International Film Festival for its continued efforts in spotlighting socially relevant films, and more importantly… for helping to Keep Michael Shining!

The festival screening dates will be on January 15th and 16th. Schedules and screening times will be posted by mid December. This marks the second film festival award for Shining and we hope that it will not be its last. In particular, we are pleased to see that Shining was recognized for its intricate editing and visual effects… something Michael himself would have been very proud of!

Founded in November 2001, the mission of the Urban Mediamakers is to promote and support a diverse independent media arts community in metro-Atlanta and worldwide. The annual signature event is the Urban Mediamakers Film Festival (UMFF), showcasing independent films with a strong emphasis of work produced by or featuring people

Shining screened on opening night along with Q: The Man, a documentary that looks at the “Godfather” role of music legend Quincy Jones in the lives of today’s top young artists. What better film to screen before the Shining music video than a documentary about Quincy Jones, the man that helped Michael Jackson produce Thriller and some of the best MJ tracks of all time!

Stay tuned for pictures of the UMFF trophy and even more exciting film festival announcements!

Shining was accepted to the European Film Festival and will be screening in Cannes, France:

Cannes, France, — Nov 22-30, 2009
Location: L’étoile du Cinénma, Cinéma Star, 98 rue d’Antibes

Trevor is currently touring throught Europe and will be in the following cities over the course of the next few weeks, catch him if you can:

Berlin…  11/10-11/12
Prague…  11/12-11/14
Munich… 11/14-11/16
Athens… 11/16-11/19
Tunisia… 11/19-11/23
Barcelona… 11/23-11/25
Aix en Provence & Cannes… 11/25-11/29
Amsterdam… 11/29-12/1

Click here to watch Trevor & Unity’s This Is It response video

Unity and Trevor also try to dispel all the rumors that Michael was weak and feeble during his final days while rehearsing for the tour… he looked perfectly fit! And while many people have said that the release of this movie is just another money making scheme from Sony, seeing the film will still help to Keep Michael Shining! Look at all these rumors, surrounding him everyday… all distracting from the fact that this is a must see for true fans of MJ!

So get your tickets soon at www.thisisittickets.com before they all sell out and see Michael like you’ve never seen him before!

Once you’ve posted your image, we’ll add it to our image gallery on the comments wall. We’re especially looking for some old school gems, so dig through your photo albums, and rummage through your closets to find your best example of Michael Jackson appreciation! This is intended for fans to showcase their unique love and appreciation for MJ, so please no generic MJ pics found on the web.

We’re hoping to build a diverse gallery of Michael Jackson memorabilia, paraphernalia, and original artwork, so please post a comment and upload your image to Keep Michael Shining!

(Please try to upload an image with a minimum width of 450 pixels)

We used exactly 21 music videos featuring Michael Jackson to create Shining and are challenging Michael Jackson fans to identify each one. A variety of different clips were featured in Shining, but we are only asking that contestants identify music videos and not performances (e.g. – Motown 25), movies (e.g. – Moonwalker), or documentaries (e.g. – The Legend Continues). Fans that are able to identify all 21 music videos correctly will be entered to win one of three prizes:

1st Prize: 8GB iPod Touch

2nd Prize: $100 iTunes Gift Card

3rd Prize: $50 iTunes Gift Card

Once you have filled out the form, you will receive a confirmation email listing all of your responses. Contestants who have identified all 21 music videos correctly will be notified by October 29th with further information about the prize drawing.

We will be accepting entries through October 29th (exactly 2 months after Michael’s birthday), at which point we will randomly select 3 lucky winners out of the contestants that were able to identify all 21 music videos correctly.

For questions and more information please contact promotions@eklectyk.com

There were mixed feelings about Oprah’s intentions, but as we all hoped, she “represented right” and kept things positive to keep Michael shining.

Click here to watch Janet Jackson’s MTV Video Music Awards tribute.

Listen to all 22 classique tracks right here or click here for a FREE download of the entire mixtape.