Friends,

Thank you all for coming here today. It gives me great pleasure to say a few words before we watch the latest production by Director Romuald Sciora, who has already contributed so much to the United Nations.

Mr. Sciora's TV series, “At the Glass Building”, featured revealing interviews with former UN Secretaries-General, and shed new light on the great history of the United Nations.

Today, we are privileged to see the second part of his work on the United Nations: “Planet UN,” a documentary focusing on the United Nations at the beginning of the 21st century.

In creating this far-reaching film, Mr. Sciora has covered the history and activities of the UN and its main agencies. He spent more than five years on the project, and held hundreds of meetings with staff at all levels. The end result is a wonderful depiction of the many ways in which the Organization can be an effective instrument for development, human rights and peace.

Mr. Sciora is showcasing the work of the United Nations in other ways, too. His NGO, United Media, has collaborated with Marvel Enterprises on a comic book about us that will be launched in September. I understand that he grew up following the adventures of Spiderman. Imagine how satisfying it must be for him to have made it possible for his favourite Marvel characters to tell the story of how the UN fights poverty, disease and conflict worldwide. It is certainly satisfying to us to know that these comics will be distributed to more than a million children throughout the United States, thanks to a partnership between Marvel Comics, the Department of Public Information and the UN Office for Partnerships.

Mr. Sciora has spoken passionately about the quote “need for a truly global vision for the general public to understand what the United Nations actually accomplishes.”

I could not agree more. For better or for worse, people today learn about current events and real institutions through their depictions in popular culture. We should all be grateful to Mr. Sciora for putting our life-saving work on the map in this way, too.

So it is with great appreciation and admiration that I invite you all to enjoy this new film. And please tell your friends about it.

Thank you.