Dear Friends & Supporters,

WE DID IT ! We won Project of the Week at IndieWire.

http://www.indiewire.com/article/congrats-to-alice-walker-iws-project-of-the-week#

We only did it because of the massive support we received from you all via twitter and Facebook. 380 people voted for us, which put us in 1^st place.

We only found out that we were up for Project of the Week 36 hours before voting closed.  And that’s when we mobilized our support networks and everyone showed up and shared, tweeted and voted. The power of social media is truly awesome in helping us all to connect to each other and support each others’ creative projects.

Next we will be up for Project of the Month so look out for it at the end of January and lets get ready to vote again.

Thank YOU once again for being part of Beauty In Truth family. We feel warmly embraced.

Love & Light,

Pratibha

Only 36 hours left.

Dear Friends and Supporters,

Please vote and make our film Indiewire "Project of the Week"! Please cast your vote on Facebook at the following link: http://apps.facebook.com/my-polls/pomzh4m. The voting deadline is Monday 9th January 2012 at 11am EST. 

If we win and become project of the week we get exposure in the industry which will further help us to attract potential funding to finish the film. So your support would be most appreciated.

Many thanks!

YES WE DID IT !!

By the close of our campaign on 14^th of December we raised $55,100, exceeding our goal and expectations. We have witnessed incredible global support from our 334 donors from 15 countries. Our deepest gratitude to all of you who pledged and made our goal a reality.

With your help we are on our way to finish shooting the film in the New Year and then move on to editing all our amazing footage. This has only been made possible by the generosity of all our donors. 

Every donation is crucial and the fund raising continues for our post production needs. If you or anyone you know would like to make a donation so we can finish Beauty In Truth, please donate on our website and pass on our information. 

http://www.alicewalkerfilm.com/donate/

Beauty In Truth is being carried through to its completion with the most beautiful and positive of energies generated by each and everyone of you. Thank you, for being part of our journey.

Please sign up on the website to become part of our contact list and continuing receiving updates on the progress of Beauty In Truth via our regular newsletters.

http://www.alicewalkerfilm.com/contact/

We look forward to keeping you updated on the progress of the film and meeting all our donors and supporters when our film screens at various locations in 2012.

Love & Light  

Pratibha & Shaheen

ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT. WE ARE ECSTATIC

Angel Donors have sky rocketed us to our goal. Sometimes magic happens and it's happened to us.

A really BIG thank you to all our wonderful supporters who have generated incredible energy towards our film which in turn has become a magnet for even more positive energy.

Thank you for your confidence in us and for sharing our passion for this film.

We have 6 days left so please support if you can as further funds will enable us to continue on to editing and launching the film in 2012, the 30th Anniversary of The Color Purple.

Keep the magic working!

With Deep Gratitude

Pratibha and Shaheen

Dear Friends and Supporters

We are excited to bring you some unique and incredible new perks. We are partnering with Delhi based Ishan Khosla Designs who work with women's craft co-operatives in the desert region of Kutch, Western India. Their aim is to 'protect art' and to work with co-operatives  to  preserve the ancient craft skills of women artisans in a sustainable and ethical way.

By placing a pledge for one of these new perks you will be involved in a conscious and sustainable quadrilateral collaboration - YES you will become the 4th party in this process, your support for these rural women, often elderly and with failing eyesight, will keep their craft alive and contribute to the sustainability of their families and communities. These perks will become  'ballads of sustainable development, pride, fine art, stories, labor, livelihoods, beauty, precision and tradition.'

New featured Sustainable Incentives

These women artisans will be introduced to a selected poem or works of Alice Walker as chosen by Pratibha and in collaboration with Ishan and his team the women artisans will design individual and unique Limited Edition hand stitched 'quilits' and 'tote bags.' By pledging for these conscious and sustainable incentives you will be making a difference to artisan women's lives while also supporting the production of our film. 

We also intend to send you messages and photographs from the woman artisan working on your specific pledge.

New featured Incentive From Fellow Collaborator

Welcome

ALICE WALKER: BEAUTY IN TRUTH is a feature documentary film about the life and times of American writer, Alice Walker who made history as the first Black woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1983 for her ground breaking novel The Color Purple, made into a successful film by Steven Spielberg.

ALICE WALKER: BEAUTY IN TRUTH has been 4 years in the making. During this time we have most definitely rolled up our sleeves, put our heads down and dedicated ourselves to getting this film out in the world by any means necessary. On this ever eventful journey, we have been joined by some truly committed and amazing people who share our vision to tell this inspiring story of hope. We have got this far with the help of generous donations from individuals, grants and awards, major extensions on our personal credit cards and most recently filmmaker support from ITVS. We have now completed 85% of the filming and are working towards the completion of a rough cut. 

The filmmaking team is award-winning filmmaker Pratibha Parmar and producer Shaheen Haq.

The Story So Far

We all know that well-behaved women rarely make history, but what of the rebels and writers, artists and activists, mothers, daughters and sisters who refuse to behave? They are the women who take the risks that change society. Who tells their stories? Alice Walker is one such woman, a risk-taker, a poet, human rights activist and novelist.

Alice Walker�s dramatic life has been lived in a spirit of resistance and grace. Born in 1944, in a paper-thin shack on a cotton plantation, the eighth child of sharecroppers in rural Georgia, her early life unfolded in the midst of violent racism and poverty in the segregated South. Her poor, black, Southern upbringing and her activism in the civil rights movement in Mississippi in the 1960�s greatly influenced her consciousness and shaped her writing. Being forced to ride at the back of the bus, and watching her parents being brutalised by racist segregation, instilled in her a life long commitment to justice and equality. In 2010, Walker was awarded the LennonOno Peace Award for her humanitarian work by Yoko Ono, another visionary and a risk-taker.

�Alice is a woman who is certainly right there connected to every single movement that happened in the last 40 years. Intrinsic in her writing is that part of her which, is a citizen of the world, a woman of the world, and an activist and an artist.� Danny Glover. 

Flying Over Fences

Funding independent film is an uphill climb at the best of times but for women it is no picnic. If we look a the startling fact that only 7% of directors, 13% of writers, and 20% of producers are female, it�s not hard to see what we are up against. Given such a dearth of female representation behind the camera, is it any wonder that we continue to struggle to find funding for female stories and voices?

We want all women and girls to be empowered around the globe, to believe in their own voices and their own truths. And this is why we need stories of women like Alice Walker who are fearless risk-takers and history makers.

So far we have interviewed inspirational people such as Gloria Steinem, Yoko Ono, Steven Spielberg, Angela Davis, the late Howard Zinn, Danny Glover, Brenda Russell, Tony Award-winner LaChanze, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Jewelle Gomez, Evelyn C White, Allee Willis and others.

How Your Contribution Will Help

Your money will go towards:

1. Funding further key interviews in the US and pickups with Alice Walker  (production costs will include crew and equipment)

2. Funding some editing time on BEAUTY IN TRUTH

3. Funding selected music clearances, such as the awe-inspiring Nina Simone

4. Funding selected archive research for key historical moments in BEAUTY IN TRUTH

5. Funding selected archive film clearances for BEAUTY IN TRUTH