Tonight, National Geographic Fellow Reza, a distinguished photographer and renowned humanitarian, will unveil his latest work: "REZA War + Peace: A Photographers Journey," with a launch event at NG Headquarters in Washington D.C. The book is a 30 year retrospective that chronicles his remarkable journey to places of conflict through exquisite images that uniquely capture turmoil, hope, joy and despair. This evening's special event will feature an engaging discussion with Reza and best-selling author Sebastian Junger, who wrote the book's introduction. Check out NG Live for tickets and more information.

For a town that has seen it all as the entertainment capital of the world, Hollywood is still feeling the aftershocks of the 2007 All Roads Film Festival. Now in its 4th year, the festival has set a new standard for delivery of the trilateral palette of the arts in Hollywood. Through amazing films, captivating photography and live, ribald Mediterranean dancehall music, there was fervor and intrigue over the works of the All Roads global indigenous artists. Several of the festival attendees commented that they had never witnessed such an event in their experiences on the Los Angeles scene.

As a result of outreach to a local high school, young students also had the opportunity to share in the appreciation of these powerful and unique stories. The film "Super Amigos" was especially engaging for youth, and they were surprisingly in tune with the social touch points raised in the film. The film was also a hit for Friday night's festival attendees. Indeed "super" can be appropriately applied to the reception the film received on this night. Amid two standing ovations and chants of social pride from the well-attended audience, Super Barrio made a triumphant appearance for an engaging question and answer session that delved into some of the hot button issues afflicting this continent's megalopolises.

The festival has had an equally strong impact on the artists as well; many are visiting the U.S. for the first time. During the question and answer session that followed the screening of "Dol," the film's producer Mehmet Aktas noted that All Roads is the only festival in the U.S. that has been willing and daring enough to screen his films, thus both were U.S. premieres. According to All Roads Photography Program awardee A Yin (China, Inner Mongolia), his peers were apathetic towards his honor because of the perception among them that National Geographic is too business-oriented. After five days with the festival, he said he cannot wait to tell his colleagues how wrong they were. He said he is moved by the opportunity granted by NGS to meet these other artists from around the world while providing a platform for each to express their stories.

Before arriving in Washington D.C., the 2006 All Roads Photographers will be taking a detour to Stanford University tonight for a feature presentation at the Aurora Forum.  In an event titled: Making Connections: Photographic Storytellers from Around the World, All Roads Photographers Sailful Huq (Bangledesh), Larry McNeil (Tlingit Nation), Sandra Pedro (Guatamala), and Newsha Tavakolian (Iran) will join National Geographic Fellow Chris Rainer and others for a conversation and presentation of their work.  Join them as they discuss ways their images and stories make connections that help create a more just and beautiful world.