Lissette Miller is a former Oxfam Action Corps organizer and student volunteer. She lives in Washington, DC.

I’m quite picky when it comes to films (I’m that guy), but even the rain couldn’t stop me from enjoying the film También la Lluvia (Even the Rain), which I first saw last year at the Coral Gables Arts Cinema in Miami.

For one, the story touches upon issues that will make you want to join a picket line. It takes place in Cochabamba, Bolivia, where a movie is being filmed about the Columbian voyage to the “New World” and their unexpected encounters with its inhabitants. Gael García Bernal plays the director, who hires the local townspeople to portray “Native” people like Hatuey, a 16th century Taíno chief known for leading uprisings against the colonizers. Things get cray when the filmmakers discover the actor playing Hatuey is, in his own life, an active protestor against the privatization of his city’s water plant (a direct allusion to the Cochabamba Water Wars).

Also, Gael García Bernal. I mean, c’mon, the man’s face looks like it was carved by angels. More importantly, he’s a social justice activist at heart who’s been working with Oxfam since 2005. He’s visited Chiapas, Mexico, to meet farmers directly affected by unfair global trade practices. He’s had a hand in urging world leaders to address climate change, and is a supporter of Oxfam’s GROW campaign, or CRECE en Español. Gael, along with friend and fellow actor Diego Luna, founded the non-profit Ambulante, which screens documentary films and hosts training programs in places where they are rarely available.

In También la Lluvia, however, Gael plays a far from compassionate character, who knowingly makes a profit off his low-paid Bolivian crew and continues shooting his movie even as the water protests turn violent.

Stimulating story, aside, I also appreciated that this was a subtitled movie, with the actors speaking Spanish. Seriously, what’s with the movies set outside the US with non-English speaking characters, yet with all-English dialogue? As if everyone in the world is speaking English to one another in weird, obscure accents, maintaining every other aspect of their culture save for their language. Oh, Hollywood, you sly devil, you.

Bottom line: If you’re an Ox-friend, you’ll dig this this movie. También la Lluvia highlights certain injustices done to poor, often-silent populations, and the power they wield when they stand together in opposition, while somehow never straying into preachy-land.

OxfamBuzzList is a blog series about the movies, books, blogs, music, and more that have Oxfam staff and supporters talking. If you’d like to contribute a guest post or suggest a topic, please leave a comment below.

Amy Luebbert, 30, may have a day job in the corporate world, but in her free time she’s a community organizer, vegan baker, and co-leader of the Oxfam Action Corps in Des Moines, Iowa. Below, Luebbert shares four tips with Oxfam’s Anna Kramer from a successful year of volunteering with Oxfam to fight hunger and poverty.

2. Make it hands-on. We host a lot of [informational] tables about Oxfam at farmers’ markets and music festivals. At one festival, we wanted to offer people something more than a petition to sign. So we invited them to use food items, like seeds or beans, to decorate postcards with what they thought a world without hunger would look like, or to write or draw a message to share with their legislators. We ended up with about 60 hand-decorated cards. When we brought the cards to our next meeting with representatives, they paid attention. Signatures are great, but a handwritten note or picture feels more personal.

3. Connect your community to the world. In Des Moines, the Oxfam Action Corps combines legislative efforts with hands-on projects that make a difference in our city. Once a month, we volunteer at community gardens or help out at a local food pantry. Talking to [our fellow volunteers] helps make people  aware of Oxfam and the international angle to the issues. It’s also a great way to bring in new volunteers who are looking for ways to give back.

4. Reach out over a meal. Food brings people together in ways that you wouldn’t expect. It was an Oxfam America Hunger Banquet that first inspired me to work with Oxfam; I’ve been part of five Hunger Banquets, and each one is different. We co-organize these events with other groups, like the ONE Campaign or students at a local university, who can bring in additional people and ideas. We also co-hosted a potluck dinner with Oxfam’s Sisters on the Planet ambassadors in Iowa, and we’re planning another potluck in the spring. There are always good discussions during the meal, and afterward a lot of people come up to us wanting to get involved in our efforts.

If you want to get involved, apply here to join the Oxfam Action Corps in Des Moines and 14 other US cities.

Whenever I meet someone who volunteers for Oxfam, I ask about their motivation. What inspires you to spend your free time tackling issues like climate change or world hunger—issues that can seem distant and insurmountable?

The answers rarely have to do with the issues per se. Instead, they’re about people.

Volunteers talk about how they feel when they hear about the injustices facing poor people worldwide. They tell me about the sense of community they experience when they join with others who share their passion for fighting those injustices. Most of all, they talk about the power of connecting with someone else—a legislator, a fellow student, a neighbor—and getting them to feel that passion too.

“One person is powerful,” said Grace Castro, a college senior from Miami, FL. “If one person is doing something, that’s going to inspire someone else to do something. Never underestimate your efforts.”

It’s the same belief that drives national movements like the MLK Day of Service last week, when hundreds of thousands of Americans spent a holiday Monday performing volunteer work in their communities.

So, in that same spirit, I wanted to share a short video interview (above) with Castro and her fellow University of Miami Oxfam Club member Lissette Miller. I met Castro and Miller in October, when they organized a panel on campus featuring the visiting Haitian farmer and community leader Jacqueline Morette. Both had been involved with Oxfam before: Castro as an Oxfam America CHANGE Leader, and Miller in the Oxfam Action Corps. They told me a little about what their club does, why they volunteer, and why they believe everyone’s efforts matter.

So watch, listen, and maybe feel inspired to do something of your own.

Over 80,000 people attended Bonnaroo this year, and our dedicated group of Oxfam volunteers and staffers set out to reach as many of those concert-goers as possible. Together, we collected 3,000 signatures for a petition calling on our leaders to take action on climate change; screened Oxfam films in the video tent; canvassed during shows by Oxfam supporting artists LCD Soundsystem, Aziz Ansari, OK Go, and more; and organized group activities, like our famous water bucket carrying contest, to raise awareness of poverty and hunger issues.  At the end, we celebrated with a dip in the infamous “hippie fountain” (don’t ask).

Here’s a quick look at three photos that I think best capture the spirit of our efforts:

Photo: Bob Ferguson/Oxfam America

Members of our crew—left to right: Oxfam Action Corps volunteer Mark Fangmeier of Minnesota; Oxfam Boston staffer Katie Stuart; former Oxfam America CHANGE Leader Paul Gallegos of Wyoming; and Oxfam’s Clara Herrero—get ready to go out and start another day of canvassing. Read on for more photos…

Photo: Bob Ferguson/Oxfam America

A festival-goer joins Oxfam’s photo petition calling on BP to clean up their mess in the Gulf Coast. Many of the people I met were concerned about the human and environmental impacts of the BP oil spill—if you want to help, send a message to Congress and ask that Gulf Coast communities get the funding and assistance they need.

Artists for Oxfam Ozomatli pose with the Oxfam banner just moments before taking the stage. They’re just one of many bands and musicians who support Oxfam’s work around the world.

Want more Bonnaroo? Check out our album on Facebook.

“Should we run?” 

I didn’t even need to ask.  We were short on time, and transferring to another DC metro train that was about to depart. Megan took off, running in heels, and continued to accelerate, gunning to catch the subway just 50 yards ahead of us.

From my vantage point, keeping up alongside her, it appeared to be a scene from an action movie:  she faintly lit, sprinting, and stylishly dressed against the futuristic blur of the metro tunnel and its crowd.  But it wasn’t a ticking bomb in Megan’s sights, nor a top secret briefcase: The object of her pursuit was the Dianne Feinstein weekly constituent breakfast.

Megan Ferreira, second from right, with her fellow Oxfam Action Corps volunteers. Photo: Brian Rawson / Oxfam America

As a volunteer for the Oxfam Action Corps, Megan Ferreira is on a mission. A mission to help people in poverty, people who are getting slammed by droughts, floods, and other consequences of climate change. Congress has the power to limit greenhouse gas emissions and generate revenue to help people cope. That’s why, the morning after an exhausting four-day training, Megan was rushing to seize her one chance to see her Senator in person (albeit in front of a crowd) before leaving Washington, DC. 

“There are so many injustices in the world. But rather than waste my energy being frustrated and depressed by it all, I find motivation knowing that my time and voice can make a difference, even a small one,” says Megan, who’s volunteered as an organizer with the San Francisco Bay Area Action Corps since its inception in 2007.

Megan was in DC earlier this month to help us train 24 new volunteer organizers from 11 US cities. After the training—which gives volunteers all the skills they need to campaign with Oxfam to fight poverty—we headed to Capitol Hill for meetings with members of Congress. As they called for the passage of a climate bill that helps poor communities adapt, the volunteers also got some hands-on advocacy experience to bring back to their home cities.

And, like Megan, the volunteers are off to a rapid start. Only five days into their new roles, they’d already organized one public screening of the Sisters on the Planet films and held 43 meetings with members of Congress.

Actually, make that 44. When we made it at last to the breakfast, Megan was able to address the Senator, her legislative director, and 200 constituents—all with barely enough time to catch her breath.