YOU can get this life-changing film into more hands, now.
Our Story
TWO SPIRITS interweaves the
tragic story of a mothers loss of her son with a revealing look at the largely
unknown history of a time when the world wasnt simply divided into male and
female and many Native American cultures held places of honor for people of
integrated genders.
Powerful and moving, Lydia Nibleys
documentary TWO SPIRITS
explores the life and death of Fred Martinez and the
ancient Native American two-spirit tradition. TWO SPIRITS premiered on the Emmy Award-winning PBS series
Independent Lens, hosted by America Ferrera, on Tuesday, June 14, 2011
and will be re-broadcast 1,495 times by 140 PBS stations from June
14-29th.
Fred Martinez told his mother he felt
as if he was both a boy and a girl, and she explained that this is a special
gift, according to traditional Navajo culture. But the place where two
discriminations meet is a dangerous place to live, and Fred became one of the
youngest hate-crime victims in modern history when he was brutally murdered at
sixteen. Between tradition and controversy, and freedom and fear, lies
the truththe bravest choice you can make is to be
yourself.
VIEWERS OF THE FILM HAVE SAID THEY WANT MORE PEOPLE TO SEE IT, THAT IT NEEDS TO BE AVAILABLE MORE WIDELY. SO PLEASE JOIN WITH US TO FUND THE EXPANDED OUTREACH AND EDUCATIONAL EFFORTS SURROUNDING TWO SPIRITS FILM.
The Impact
As viewers and supporters you can
have a direct impact on many lives. Our current goal is to make the most of the
national awareness around the PBS-Independent Lens broadcasts to leverage a
larger effort to fund distribution of the film in cities and rural communities
and to make it more widely available to organizations. When people see the film
and engage in meaningful discussions, hearts are opened and minds are
changed.
Who will be reached?
- Tribal organizations that want many members of their communities to have copies of the film.
- Many nonprofits that want to use the film in public screening events and in their ongoing programs.
- Many libraries that want to add the film to their collections.
- Many educators want to add the film to their curriculum but they cant
unless we can support them in a this time of budget crunch by providing the
film through your underwriting of the cost.
- Wed also like to see the film screened more by communities of faith and are working hard to make that happen.
Were a small team doing everything we can and this effort is truly grassroots so know that your support goes a long way.
What We Need & What You Get
Your contributions will help:
Buy copies of the TWO SPIRITS
DVD to be distributed to libraries,
nonprofit organizations for use in their programs, tribal organizations,
colleges and universities. Weve got a long list of organizations standing by to
receive copies provided by viewers. Thank you for expanding the reach of the
film in this important way.
We'd love to be able to tell you exactly how many DVD's your contribution will provide, but the number varies based on the needs of the organization and whether they are individual copies, educational copies or rights for public screenings.
Well post where the DVDs go on the official "Two Spirit Outreach" map to show the reach of the film at the www.twospirits.org website.
Ultimately, your
contribution to these education and outreach efforts will help our
nationwide campaign to encourage social inclusion and acceptance and to
put an end to violence and discrimination against the LGBT
community--one connection at a time.
Fund the special
project of having our brilliant outreach
coordinator Selina work with the PBSIndependent Lens team to analyze their data to
find the places in the country where the film was not broadcast and to
work to establish special screenings and other
outreach efforts specifically in those areas. 90% of the country will be reached by PBS
stations but that still leaves 10% untouched.
These places are probably some of the communities that need TWO SPIRITS the
most.
Selina can be reached directly at twospiritoutreach@gmail.com. Please feel free to contact her to share your ideas for expanding this effort in creative ways we havent thought
oflets put our collective energy behind figuring out how to make more and
better use of TWO SPIRITS.
Other Ways You Can Help
The reach and length of time of this
expanded education and outreach initiative
will depend on the level of contribution, and well let you know what you
specifically have made possible and provide updates to you.
With Gratitude,
Lydia Nibley, on behalf of the film
team
PS: To keep up with our
efforts, please follow the Two Spirits movement on Facebook and Twitter. And
please continue to
help us spread the word. It's working!
