Bulova Documentary Puts a Spotlight on Brand's Backing of Veterans, Women's Rights and Other Social Initiatives
Speaking following Variety and Golden Globes' screening of Michael Culyba's documentary 'America Telling Time: 150 Years of Bulova' presented by Bulova, Benavente told an audience on Sunday at the Cannes Film Festival that the sequence that made the most emotional impact on him and other audience members he'd chatted with was the one featuring the work done with the Veterans Watchmaker Initiative, which the company supports.
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The non-profit runs a tuition-free school that allows disabled veterans to learn watchmaking skills and offers them a dedicated job placement. In the film, veterans, some of whom had been homeless, explained how it had restored their sense of self-worth, as well as giving them a means to earn a living, despite their physical or mental challenges. For some it had literally been a life saver, as they had been contemplating suicide.
Benavente explained that the Veterans Watchmaker Initiative was set up by Sam Cannan, who was a sniper for a SWAT team in Baltimore.
'He got shot off a three-story building while there was an active shooter, and he fell, and by the grace of God, there was an awning that broke his fall. But immediately he was disabled from the Baltimore Police Department,' Benavente explained. After attending the Joseph Bulova School of Watchmaking, Cannan went on to 'have a very illustrious career as a watchmaker. He goes to live in Switzerland for many years, and this project that you saw today is really a work of love for him to give back, because he was in the same place as these guys. So you can see he's very emotional and he's super passionate about it and he's a great guy, and so we're just happy to be able to be with him and support,' Benavente said.
Among other not-for-profit initiatives the company supports that are covered in the film are the Latin Grammys; the Maestro Cares Foundation, co-founded by singer Marc Anthony; and the We Are Family Foundation, which was co-founded by singer-songwriter Nile Rodgers. Both Anthony and Rodgers are brand ambassadors for Bulova, have designed watches for the company, and feature prominently in the film. Anthony's wife Nadia Ferreira, the Paraguayan model and social influencer, also attended the Cannes screening.
The film is broken into themed chapters, rather than following a series of milestones chronologically, and the one that stood out for Culyba was Bulova's impact on women's rights. In the 1970s, for example, the company ran a series of groundbreaking ads in support of equal pay for women.
'I would say that was another exciting part of discovery while I was making the film,' Culyba said. 'I wasn't necessarily aware of their advertising campaign for the Equal Rights Amendment, and that ad is so brave and bold of a company at that time to really take a social and political stand.
'At the time, Bulava really embraced women's rights, and it's a message that I think a lot of people, a lot of women, obviously, and men, can feel still today, through the brand it, it's still there.'
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