A Message From Joss Whedon
(Plus: You Are Dua Khalil)
Joss On Equality Now
There are two ways to fight a battle like ours. One is to whisper in the ear of the masses, try subtlely and gradually to change the gender expectations and mythic structures of our culture. That's me. The other is to step up and confront the thousands of atrocities that are taking place around the world on an immediate, one-by-one basis. That's a great deal harder, and that's Equality Now. It's not about politics; it's about basic human decency.
- Joss Whedon
Joss On 2006
But the second "Thank You" is obviously for the screenings, and everyone's involvement. ... What an achievement. I wish I could have been at one. ... I got an E-mail from Jessica Neuwirth [of Equality Now], who was of course thrilled and grateful for the whole thing. It's by your efforts that my movie has become inexorably linked to such a vital, under-recognized cause, and so y'all should be frantically patting yourselves on the backs. Thank you. It matters. Plus, fun!
- Joss Whedon
Equality Now On 2006
During the last week of June 2006, Joss Whedon's fans, the Browncoats, organized 47 screenings of his film Serenity in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. The screenings were held to benefit Equality Now and celebrate Joss' birthday. Earnings totaling over $60,000 have been reported. Equality Now is extremely grateful for the support of the Browncoats and inspired by the tremendous energy and commitment they have put into their efforts to support our work to end human rights abuses against women and girls around the world.
- Equality Now
Thanks From...
All of us at Equality Now continue to be amazed by and grateful for the Browncoats' and Serenity fans' generous and committed support for our work. Their energy and enthusiasm is inspiring and these screenings are coming at a critical time when we are especially in need of funds! We thank each and every one of them and Happy Birthday to Joss!"
- Amanda Sullivan, Equality Now
Local Total:
$13,000
Global As Of 21 August:
$121,806.05 (est)
Women's Film Initiative:
Approx. $1,000
March 2007 Updates
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28 March 2007: While our planning meetings become increasingly more active, a couple of new pieces of information we can provide. First, we're happy to announce that The Portland Mercury has come on board today as a promotional partner. Once we're closer to the event, you'll see what that means.
Second, the plan for the actual showtimes is intended to be an evening show on Friday, June 22, and a matinee on Saturday, June 23, increasing the options for people who might not be able to make it if we had just a single evening show. Last year, we know there were people who couldn't make it, so we hope this year's schedule helps with that.
23 March 2007: This week, under the coordination of Devin Pike, 2007's follow-up to the worldwide charity screenings of Serenity conceived last year right here in Portland has reached a goal with fifty cities planning events. It seems like an opportune and appropriate moment to provide some context, looking back at 2006, to show just how impressive that is, and how well it bodes for this year.
According to the Internet Archive's cached copy of last year's CSTS website, marked as being from April 2, last year at roughly this time we had only six cities listed -- two as confirmed (Albany and Minneapolis) and four as pre-planning (Boston, Los Angeles, Portland, and Santa Barbara).
This year as of today we have 50 cities listed before April even begins, with 25 confirmed. Last year, we didn't even have 25 confirmed cities yet as of May 24. We believe the effort hit 25 confirmed cities last year around May 29 or 30.
That's really rather remarkable, and suggests that it's very likely we can have 50 confirmed cities by the time the June event weekend arrives, which makes it exceedingly likely that we can exceed last year's global take of $69,000 and make a real run at breaking $100,000.
19 March 2007: The buzz has started, with Shawn Levy of The Oregonian blogging about the coming de facto Browncoat Summer here in the Portland of Oregon: "Because, as all Browncoats know, you can't stop the signal. Especially if its area code is 503."
18 March 2007: Another important milestone was reached today, as we received confirmation from the Hollywood Theatre that our Serenity print has been booked. This was not unexpected, of course, but one always frets a bit about any and all potential snags, however unlikely they may be. So it's nice to take note along the way as things progress as planned and intended.
15 March 2007: PDX Browncoats is proud to announce (at last!) that this year's charity screenings of Serenity will be held on Friday, June 22, and Saturday, June 23, at the historic Hollywood Theatre. You read that right: Two screenings this year. In addition, we are very excited to announce that 10% of the door will go to support the Women's Film Initiative. Read on for more.
Our primary charity, Equality Now, of course, was founded in 1992 to work for the protection and promotion of the human rights of women around the world. Working with national human rights organizations and individual activists, Equality Now documents violence and discrimination against women and mobilizes international action to support their efforts to stop these human rights abuses.
Our addition this year, the Women's Film Initiative, was established in recognition that few role models exist for women interested in pursuing filmmaking behind the camera. Dr. Martha Lauzen of San Diego State University revealed that in 2004 only 5% of directors, 3% of cinematographers, 16% of editors and 12% of writers on the top 250 films were women.
The Women’s Film Initiative is comprised of four programs:
• INSPIRE: A Program for Young Women Filmmakers creates opportunities for female high school students to direct, produce, shoot and edit and their own films.
• The Faerie Godmother Film Scholarships will be provided to Oregon and SW Washington women studying film in a four-year college or university.
• The Women’s Vision Film Grants will support female filmmakers who tell engaging stories that increase social awareness and tolerance, both within and beyond our immediate communities.
• The Portland Women's Film Festival (POW Fest) celebrates the art and cinematic contribution of women filmmakers from around the world. Presented by Sour Apple Productions and Zonker Films, the Festival is produced in partnership with Film Action Oregon. POW Fest! will be held May 8 - 11, 2008.
With the selection of our venue and dates for this year's followup to our enormously successful screening last year, we're anxious to get to work on making this year's event bigger and better. As ever, we remind you to subscribe to this site via feed or email to make sure you're in the loop and kept up to date on any and all development.
14 March 2007: Keep an eye out here. It's very likely that our venue announcement, and potentially the date announcement as well, is coming in the very near future. Then, we can get things going.
01 March 2007: As we move closer to being able to make a determination on venue and date(s) for this year's event, we therefore move closer to the beginning of the period in which new information may come quickly. So this serves as your friendly reminder to subscribe to updates from this site via feed or via email. You're not going to want to miss any important or exciting announcements, so sign up early and make sure you're in the loop.
To keep updated, subscribe via feed or via email, whichever is most convenient for you.
Local Total:
$13,000
Global As Of 21 August:
$121,806.05 (est)
Women's Film Initiative:
Approx. $1,000