Mumbai,At the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, the BBCs International news services: BBC World News, BBC World Service and BBC.com, launched My World - a global multimedia initiative, which aims to build a unique picture of peoples lives around the globe, via user-generated content.

Audiences worldwide will be invited to shoot a two minute mini-documentary with the theme of My World, using any kind of camera available to them - from a mobile phone to a digital camera. Clips can be submitted on the competition webpage www.bbc.com/superpower .

The project aims to find original stories from each continent, with compelling personal narratives. A shortlist will be made comprising the most original, ambitious and thematically important pieces. The best material from each continent will then be assembled into sequences of ten films by guest curators; these will be shown on BBC World News and entrants interviewed as part of The Strand on BBC World Service. Finally, a single film will be chosen by the curators and awarded the prize of a semi-professional camcorder.

For each continent, a well respected documentary professional will curate and judge the entries. These include Emmy award winning producer Cara Mertes for the Americas, Academy Award winning producer Greg Sanderson for Europe, Director of the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival Fujioka Asako for Asia and Director of the Encounters Documentary Festival in South Africa, Mandisa Zitha for Africa.

Simon Pitts, Executive Producer, says: My World will allow people around the world to share their stories, and show people what matters to them. With the help of our excellent curators, the BBCs international news services will be able to create a vivid and compelling picture of life today on each continent through this unique project.

To enter your own documentary clips please go to: www.bbc.com/superpower. To contact Simon Pitts for interview at Sundance, please call any time between Sunday 23rd and Tuesday 26th January on +1 323 825 7490.

Transmission:

The chosen documentaries will air on BBC World News and on BBC World Service. The Strand will carry interviews about the project from now until March 2010.

Notes to Editor

About BBC World News:

BBC World News, the BBCs commercially funded international 24-hour news and information channel, is owned and operated by BBC World News Ltd, a member of the BBCs commercial group of companies. BBC World News attracts 74 million viewers a week, is available in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide, and reaches more than 299 million households and 1.7 million hotel rooms. The channels content is also available on 81 cruise ships, 46 airlines, 35 mobile phone networks and a number of major online platforms including bbc.com/news. For further information on how to receive BBC World News, download schedules or find out more about the channel, visit bbcworldnews.com.

About BBC World Service

BBC World Service is an international multimedia broadcaster delivering 32 language and regional services. It uses multiple platforms to reach its weekly audience of 188 million globally, including shortwave, AM, FM, digital satellite and cable channels.Its news sites, which received 4.7 million weekly visitors in September 2009, include audio and video content and offer opportunities to join the global debate. It has around 2,000 partner radio stations which take BBC content, and numerous partnerships supplying content to mobile phones and other wireless handheld devices. For more information, visit bbcworldservice.com. For a weekly alert about BBC World Service programmes, sign up for the BBC World Agenda e-guide at bbcworldservice.com/eguide.

About BBC.com
The BBC is one of the most respected brands on the Internet and offers up to the minute International news, business, sports, weather, lifestyle and technology content and in depth analysis. BBC.com is the online expression of the BBC outside of the UK and is run by BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC. In November 2007 the site introduced advertising outside of the UK to an audience of 51 million unique users generating revenues to reinvest in BBC content and services.*Omniture Q4 2009.