***UPDATE 8-17-11***

We now have a PayPal Donation button up on the UBLEP Blog, http://ubleproject.tumblr.com/, for those who still want to donate to our campaign. We also have a mailing address for off-line donations to the film.

*ALL additional levels of Donations received until we reach our goal of $15,000 will receive the PERKS from our Indiegogo Campaign---> *

You can make all checks/money orders payable to Tiona M or Lisa C. Moore (not both!), and send via snail mail to:

c/o UBLEP
P.O. Box 42181
Philadelphia, PA 19101

We still have about $4,000 left to raise to reach our Phase 1 fundraising goal of $15,000. We hope to make this goal by the end of the year while we are on the road securing our first round of interviews, thanks to off-line donations and recent pledges.

We are also sending you our official UBLEP Film Interviewee Questionnaire. If you know a black lesbian elder that may be a good fit for the film, please pass along this questionnaire.

You can download here http://www.mediafire.com/?rf226ut2gxvib68

All responses can be sent via e-mail at UBLEProject@gmail.com or via snail mail to P.O. BOX 42181, Philadelphia, PA 19101.

Thank you again for all your support!

Tiona & Lisa

***UPDATE 7-29-11***

YAY!! We have officially made our base goal of $10,000 as of this morning and we thank all of you for supporting UBLEPs first phase of fundraising! We still have about 16 hours left to receive donations and would like to raise at least $500 more to help us with fees once the campaign ends and our funds are released! Please continue to spread the word!

Indiegogo has also extended our fundraising campaign until Wed., Aug. 3 in order to resolve the glitch in receiving funds yesterday!

Again we apologize to the folks who tried to donate but could not. Hopefully things will be fine here on out!

Thank you again for all your support!

Tiona & Lisa

Our Story

THE FILM.

Filmmaker Tiona McClodden and publisher Lisa C. Moore announce their collaboration for a feature-length documentary film, Untitled Black Lesbian Elder Project. UBLEP will highlight interviews with black lesbian elders in their 60s, 70s and 80s from across the United States and situate them in a range of black historical movements, spanning the decades between the 1930s and 1980s. The film will feature 8-10 profiles of elders, and show accompanying archival footage and personal ephemera that will reveal rare images of black lesbian life and history. UBLEP will also bring to light a number of black lesbian underground movements, solidifying a black lesbian presence within overall American black history.

McClodden and Moore will begin a rigorous three-phase fundraising campaign for UBLEP starting May 20, 2011, coinciding with a presentation at the LGBT Community Center in New York City. The collaborators will discuss details of the projects inception, recent developments and future plans for UBLEPs production. This campaign will also kick off fundraising for UBLEP.

www.UBLEProject.tumblr.com

THE FILMMAKERS:

Executive Producer/Director

Tiona McClodden is a multimedia artist who works in film, new media and visual art. She considers her work black social realism and aims to fight the hyper-realistic imagery that can lead to the silencing of marginalized communities; she hopes to make the invisible visible and to humanize her subjects. McClodden is the executive producer and director of the award-winning feature-length documentary, black./womyn.: conversations with lesbians of African descent. She is currently in production on two feature-length documentary films, as well as an experimental short series, Be Alarmed: The Black Americana Epic. www.blackwomynfilm.com & www.tionam.com

Executive Producer/Writer:

Lisa C. Moore is the founder and editor of RedBone Press, which publishes work celebrating the culture of black lesbians and gay men, and work promoting understanding between black gays and lesbians and the black mainstream. Moore is the editor of does your mama know? An Anthology of Black Lesbian Coming Out Stories, and co-editor of Spirited: Affirming the Soul and Black Gay/Lesbian Identity. She is board president of Fire & Ink, an advocacy organization for LGBT writers of African descent. www.redbonepress.com & www.fireandink.org

The Impact

Untitled Black Lesbian Elder Project is a necessary, timely documentary that will honor and ensure the legacy of black lesbian elders, and situate them within a history of black people that has largely ignored the contributions of black lesbians. By letting the elders speak for themselves about the quality of their lives, we will give access points to stories that help people feel connected. These complicated narratives will join a rich cultural tradition of black lesbian history and culture that hasnt been documented enough in film. UBLEP will also enrich visual representations of black lesbians in popular media; we hope that this film will be generative, jumpstarting other work in this vein. If UBLEP is not finished, we risk losing all of these things, and continuing a marginalization of black lesbians in the media; it would continue the lie that we dont exist and dont contribute.

What We Need & What You Get

Our online fundraising goal is actually $15,000 but $10,000 is the bare minimum we need to cover our expenses as we travel to each region of the U.S. to interview and document the profiles of the women that we are in the process of selecting. We are traveling to the West Coast, Texas and New Mexico; Chicago and parts of Ohio; parts of the South; and the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast (including a stop in upstate New York). In each location, we will spend up to a week interviewing, gathering research and fundraising locally, in order to gain further support for UBLEP.

Below is a list of different funding levels and the awards associated with each.

AWARDS. Help us bear fruit!

Apple: $10 - Thank you card, e-mail updates.

Orange: $25 - Thank you card, e-mail updates, name on web site as Donor to the film.

Peach: $50 - Thank you card, e-mail updates, name on web site as Donor to the film; DVD of finished film.

Plum: $100 - Thank you card, e-mail updates, name on web site as Donor to the film; DVD of finished film, 11x17 signed film poster; name in film credits in Thank You section.

Mango: $250 - Thank you card, e-mail updates, name on web site as Donor to the film; DVD of finished film, 11x17 signed film poster; name in film credits in Thank You section; signed black./womyn. individual edition DVD, signed does your mama know? book.

Berry bonanza: $500 - Thank you card, e-mail updates, name on web site as Donor to the film; DVD of finished film, 11x17 signed film poster; name in film credits in Thank You section; signed black./womyn. individual edition DVD, signed does your mama know? book, UBLEP T-shirt; 2 tickets to private preview screening {travel & accommodations not included}. Access to UBLEP Funders Circle.

Fruit basket: $1000 - Thank you card, e-mail updates, name on web site as Donor to the film; DVD of finished film, 11x17 signed film poster; name in film credits in Thank You section; signed black./womyn. individual edition DVD, signed does your mama know? book, UBLEP T-shirt; 2 tickets to private preview screening {travel & accommodations not included}. Access to UBLEP Funders Circle and name as Producer in end film credits.

ASSOCIATE PRODUCER LEVEL

$2500 - Thank you card, e-mail updates, name on web site as Donor to the film; DVD of finished film, 11x17 signed film poster; name in film credits in Thank You section; signed black./womyn. individual edition DVD, signed does your mama know? book, UBLEP T-shirt; 2 tickets to private preview screening {travel & accommodations not included}. Access to UBLEP Funders Circle and name as Associate Producer in end film credits. Name on packaging of DVD as Associate Producer. black./womyn. institutional edition & signed 11x17 film poster, plus signed copy of book, Spirited.

CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCER LEVEL

$5000 - Thank you card, e-mail updates, name on web site as Donor to the film; DVD of finished film, 11x17 signed film poster; name in film credits in Thank You section; signed black./womyn. individual edition DVD, signed does your mama know? book, UBLEP T-shirt; 2 tickets to private preview screening {travel & accommodations not included}. Access to UBLEP Funders Circle and name as Co-Executive Producer in end film credits. Name on packaging of DVD as Co-Executive Producer. black./womyn. institutional edition & signed 11x17 film poster, plus signed copy of book, Spirited. Co-Executive Producer film credit {listed on IMDB with filmmakers}, solo title name card in film. 2 VIP Tickets to premiere {travel & accommodations not included}. Personal acknowledgement at premiere screening.

Other Ways You Can Help

Support us by SPREADING THE WORD! Blog about this fundraising effort, Tweet about it, and e-mail your friends using the share tool, asking them to pledge and then post on their Facebook pages. If you have any information on black lesbian elders that we should consider interviewing for the film, please contact us.

ONLINE:

Facebook Page: The Untitled Black Lesbian Elder Project

Follow us on Twitter: @UBLEProject

Follow our Film Blog: http://ubleproject.tumblr.com/

Contact/Email: UBLEProject@gmail.com

2011 tiona.m. & Lisa C. Moore