AMISTAD America Announces USA Video Interactive Production Of Internet Documentary Video On Freedom Schooner Amistad
Friday, 31 March 2000
MYSTIC, Connecticut, March 31, 2000 - AMISTAD America Inc. today announced the schedule for USA Video Interactive's streaming Video on Demand™ Internet production of the construction and launch of the Freedom Schooner Amistad. The streaming video will be accessible through the websites of AMISTAD America (www.amistadamerica.org), BET.com, LLC (www.bet.com), Yankee Energy System (NYSE: YES; www.yankeeenergy.com), and USA Video Interactive (OTC BB: USVO; CDNX: US; www.usvo.com).

The 27-minute Internet documentary video will be available as Video on Demand™ on the sites beginning at 7:30 p.m. EDT Tuesday, April 4. The program will be archived on the BET.com, USA Video Interactive and AMISTAD America sites for on-demand viewing fosr several months. In early July, USA Video Interactive will provide live Internet streaming video coverage of Amistad's sail to New York City for the July 3-9 OpSail 2000 tall-ship festival.

The Amistad is a 129-foot recreation of the original Amistad schooner that was the scene of an 1839 insurrection on the high seas by 49 African men and four children who were the only survivors from among hundreds kidnapped in Sierra Leone, West Africa, and shipped aboard a brig to Havana, Cuba to be sold into slavery. Once in Havana, the 53 were forced aboard the Amistad to be taken to a plantation elsewhere on the island. They broke free and took over the schooner under the leadership of Mende tribesman Sengbe Pieh. The Amistad made it to Montauk on Long Island, where the Africans were seized by the Navy and imprisoned. Efforts followed -- politically inspired by the interests of southern U.S. slaveholders -- to have them returned to the Spanish slavers. Not until 1841 did the Africans' bid for freedom prevail through the Supreme Court on grounds they had been kidnapped and illegally sold into slavery.

The video chronicles the Amistad schooner's recreation from concept two years ago to its March 25 launching at the Preservation Shipyard in Mystic Seaport. Interspersing the video are compelling interviews with Amistad Captain William Pinkney; Samuel Pieh, descendant of Sengbe Pieh; and United States Ambassador to Sierra Leone, Africa, the Honorable John E. Leigh.

AMISTAD America, Inc. Comment
"It is essential that the mission of AMISTAD America is distributed to as many individuals and in as many forms as possible," said W. (Will) H. Mebane, Jr., vice president, Development & Marketing, for AMISTAD America. "Our relationship with USA Video Interactive gives us an incredible opportunity to deliver the messages of perseverance, cooperation and leadership that are necessary in order for racial reconciliation to be more than a desired concept. The story of the freedom schooner Amistad is the story of black, brown and white peoples from around the world. AMISTAD America is delighted to be able to use the technology now available from USA Video Interactive to show people the new Amistad and to reconnect individuals of African, Latin and European ancestry much as we were in 1839 during the Amistad incident."

BET.com Comment
"The name Amistad has always been a symbol of freedom among African Americans. This floating museum will tell the story of those determined West Africans' fight for freedom and justice and will shed important light on America's conflicting views toward slavery and freedom," said Retha Hill, vice president for content development, BET.com. "The recreation of the schooner and its launch come at a time where there is a concerted effort to bring closure to this painful period of American history through reparations and the quest for an official apology for slavery. BET.com, the premier African American Internet portal, is glad to provide access to this video about the effort to build and launch the schooner and AMISTAD America's effort to educate the world about Amistad and its message."

USA Video Interactive Comment
Edwin Molina, president of USA Video Interactive, said the Amistad project "provides a unique opportunity to illuminate a subject that for many years was little more than a footnote in text books. USA Video Interactive's streaming Video on Demand offers a powerful tool to communicate the Amistad's lessons and meaning. This also will demonstrate the Internet's power to overcome traditional barriers to learning and communicating. It's an honor for us to provide this lens of modern Internet technology to our Internet partners."

About BET.com
BET.com launched in February 2000 as the premier African American portal and urban music destination. BET.com delivers compelling content, leading edge communication features, rich communities, and robust online music offerings tailored to the preferences and needs of the African American and urban communities. BET.com employs a unique content strategy, combining original content created by the site's content staff and relevant offerings from its content partners. The site's content covers a wide array of topics including news, music, entertainment, style, sports, personal finance, careers, health, romance and food.

About USA Video Interactive
USA Video Interactive is an international designer and supplier of high-tech Internet streaming video and Video-on-Demand™ systems, services and solutions. The USA Video Interactive technology gives users full-motion video; the unique flexibility of standard, VCR-like controls of play, fast-forward, reverse and pause; and the convenience of a standard internet-browser format for access. It provides video images significantly faster and at a higher degree of resolution than with previously available methods; significantly overcomes bandwidth restrictions; and eliminates the blockiness and slowness of current technologies -- all at a lower cost and at or near broadcast quality. For more information on USA Video Interactive, visit www.usvo.com.

About AMISTAD America, Inc.
AMISTAD America, Inc. is a nonprofit educational foundation dedicated to teaching the lessons of history, cooperation and leadership inherent in the Amistad episode and its legacy through the ownership, educational programming and operation of the recreated Freedom Schooner Amistad. Headquartered in Connecticut, the foundation has offices in New Haven, Hartford, and at Mystic Seaport, America's Maritime Museum. Following the March 25 launching, volunteers will complete the schooner's carpentry, install masts, rigging and sails in May, and take a shakedown cruise before departing for New York on July 2. Amistad will return to New London for OpSail New London on July 12, with a symbolic stop en route off Montauk. For more information on AMISTAD America, Inc. and the Freedom Schooner Amistad, visit www.amistadamerica.org.

USA Video Interactive Corporate Headquarters Office: 70 Essex Street; Mystic, CT 06355; (800) 625-2200; (860) 572-1560. Canada Office: 837 West Hastings Street; Suite #507; Vancouver, B.C. V6C 3N6. Trading symbol on the US NASD OTC BB: USVO;Trading symbol on The Canadian Venture Exchange: US. Standard & Poors Listed. CUSIP 902924208; USA Video, USA Video Interactive, Video-On-Demand and Video Yellow Pages are trademarks of USA Video Interactive. The Canadian Venture Exchange (CDNX) has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. For more information contact: Tony Castagno, Media Relations, 860-572-1560; Kevin Yorio, Investor Relations, 860-572-1560; .

This press release may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties.

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 05 December 2006 )