Newsletter, December 22, 2006
Divided We Fall
Here it is, your final Divided We Fall: Americans in the Aftermath newsletter of 2006! A special welcome to our new members from the greater Metropolitan Washington area! Read on…
CAPITOL PREMIERE – WASHINGTON, DC
Full Story:
http://valariekaur.blogspot.com/2006/12/house-divided-washington-dc.html
What better way to end the year than with a screening in the nation's capitol? With a bitter mid-term election still lingering, Divided We Fall was offered to the Washington, DC crowd as a soothing calmative.
Up high on the seventh floor above the George Washington University campus, overlooking a spectacular evening sky, DWF screened in its first-ever dinner theater-style venue. More than 200 people packed the seats around banquet tables in the City View Room, with several "groundlings" even taking up the middle floor and still others standing in the aisles. The evening premiere and dinner was hosted by the GWU Sikh Students Association and co-sponsored by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program in honor of Guru Nanak, the first teacher in the Sikh tradition. The audience was treated to an elegant venue for our final showing of the year, and filmmakers Sharat Raju and Valarie Kaur were treated to their final standing ovation of the year! (At least, we don't imagine getting a standing ovation during our holiday shopping at the mall…but who knows what the future brings….)
People came from Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, and as far away as Pennsylvania to join us in Washington, DC, including DWF film "stars" – people who appear in the film and people who have worked on the film. Muneer Ahmad, American University law professor, provides important insight on the scope of hate violence in the aftermath of Sept. 11 in the film. Professor Ahmad's dedicated work in the post-9/11 world has been inspirational to the production team.
Our unstoppable Director of Research Jessica Jenkins joined us, along with Associate Producers Tonse, Vidya and Manu Raju – who also act as Director Sharat Raju's parents and brother, respectively. Their constant involvement in the production, execution, and promotion of the film has brought us this far.
The excitement of the screening spilled over into a second discussion days later at American University, hosted by students at the law school. Read all about it on Valarie's blog (the link at the top)!
A heartfelt thanks to Shana Narula who orchestrated the Washington, DC premiere, all at the expense of studying for finals. (And a special thanks to her family for making the centerpieces!)
It was quite an end to the year, and an end to the beginning – the very beginning – of DWF's life out in the world.
ACROSS THE POND
While we were in DC, there was another screening of DWF in London , England! As part of the Council on Racial Equality's 30th anniversary, the conference held an advanced screening of the film to an intimate audience of more than eighty people. Waiting for news from across the Atlantic, Sharat and Valarie were pleased to hear that UK Treasury Secretary Stephen Timms gave the film a compelling introduction, making connections between the struggles against racism in the UK and America. Thanks to Michael Klein and Sonia Klein for arranging the CRE event, and for working on bigger and better things to come in the UK!
ONWARDS TO 2007
Our calendar is filling up! Every week, we add new screenings for 2007. Note in January, our first-ever India screening at a very unique film festival. If you live in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) or are visiting, please drop us a line. Sharat will be at the festival and would love to meet you there! (The schedule hasn't been released yet, but the festival is from Jan. 18-21).
Take a look at what's on our slate for January and February!
Cambridge, MA
Thursday, January 18 at 6 p.m.
Fayerweather Street School
765 Concord Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
Filmmaker present for Q&A and discussion
Free Admission
School: http://www.fayerweather.org/
Mumbai - India Premiere!
Thursday, January 18 to Sunday, January 21- TBA
Sports Movie and TV India FICTS Festival
Mumbai, India
Site:
http://www.smtvindia.com/main.html
Filmmaker present for Q&A and discussion
Admission: Film Festival Pass
Contact:
info@tenfilms.com
Palo Alto, CA
Sunday, January 28 at 7pm
Palo Alto, CA
Filmmakers present for Q&A
Free Admission
Sponsored by the Center for South Asia - Division of International, Comparative, and Area Studies. Co-sponsors include: Ethics in Society Program, Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity, Department of Religious Studies.
Berkeley, CA
Wednesday, January 31 - TBA
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA
Filmmakers present for Q&A
Admission: TBA
Stockton, CA
Thursday, February 1 at 12 p.m.
Delta College
Stockton, CA
Filmmakers present for Q&A
Free Admission
Hanover - New Hampshire Premiere!
Monday, February 5 –TBA
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH
Filmmakers present for Q&A
Free Admission
Storrs
- Connecticut Premiere!
Tuesday, February 6 –TBA
University of Connecticut
Storrs, CT
Filmmakers present for Q&A
Admission: TBA
Seattle - Washington Premiere!
Friday, February 16 –TBA
Amnesty International Seattle Film Festival
Northwest Film Forum (Tentative)
1515 12th Avenue
Seattle, WA 98122
Tickets:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/filmfest/
Filmmakers present for Q&A
Admission: TBA
Hastings - Nebraska Premiere!
Monday, February 26 - TBA
Hastings College
Hastings
, NE
Filmmakers present for Q&A
Admission: TBA
Want to pencil all our upcoming screenings into your new 2007 calendar? Check out the full tour schedule: http://dwf-film.com/tour.html
RESOLUTIONS
The year 2006 has been a remarkable one for the team of Divided We Fall. We ended a five-year journey to make the film and premiered in Phoenix on the eve of the memorial of the murder of Balbir Singh Sodhi, honoring his life and sending the film into the world. We began a whirlwind tour to New York, Boston, Chicago , Miami, San Francisco, Sacramento, London , and Washington, DC, among other cities.
We've watched the film move people to tears, inspire standing ovations, create some real dialogue, and open up spaces for people to tell their own stories: http://dwf-film.com/thebuzz.html. We are now officially on international tour, our spring calendar is packed – from Boston to Mumbai to Omaha – and we have a dialogue and curriculum package in the works. We're excited about what lies in store! More than anything, we are deeply grateful that our movie can help do the work of healing in a world that badly needs it.
Thanks to all of you who have supported us over the years! We still need your support, now more than ever – whether it be donating $50 or more through the website, or telling a friend about the stories in the movie – nothing is more valuable to us than you. Click here to help: http://dwf-film.com/donate.html
So what's our New Year's resolution for 2007? We resolve to bring the film to ever-wider audiences and create the kind of discussion that will bridge what divides us. We resolve to gather momentum for our storytelling movement and invite even more people to our growing DWF family. If our film can make a contribution, however small, toward helping us build a more perfect union, then the long struggle to make Divided We Fall will truly be worth it.
We resolve to make a difference.
We cannot wait until 2007. It will be a great year. We hope you are as excited as we are.
Happy holidays and have a happy New Year!
Divided We Fall: Americans in the Aftermath
Produced and Directed by Sharat Raju (sha...@dwf-film.com )
Produced, Written and Created by Valarie Kaur (val...@dwf-film.com )
Visit www.dwf-film.com and read the blog valariekaur.blogspot.com.
Place your vote on IMDb: http://imdb.com/title/tt0867599/
(Not another year? Respond with REMOVE in the subject and we will do so.)