Home Stretch for the rough cut

Tapestries is beginning its home stretch (woo hoo!). With a strong post production team in place - led by line producer Christopher Bankston, editor Jessica Sison and writer Susan Black and backed by the amazing post production facilities at FatBox Films - the team, led by director Michealane Risley is hoping to have a rough cut in the Fall, in preparation for premiere in 2009!

Thanks for all your support (real world at our fundraisers, blogosphere and everything in between). We'd love to see you at an upcoming fundraiser on October 19th at the McGrail Vineyards in Livermore (see invitation below). Signup online.

TapestriesOfHope101908BenefitV2 - Upload a Document to Scribd

Also, Tapestries was invited to a panel discussion organized by the Producers' Guild of America featuring pathbreaking filmmakers who are leveraging new media to raise money, build audience and find distribution for their projects. Other filmmakers included Mark Jonathan Harris, who is behind Darfur Now and other Oscar-winning documentary films and the panel was moderated by Peter Broderick, who has worked with Christopher Nolan and 600+ other filmmakers on online strategies.

ps: huge shoutout to Jessica (our editor) whose short is screening at festivals everywhere. Track a screening near you!

#1 on YouTube

2007 was not an easy year - as a lot of supporters know - for the project. After a challenging pre-production schedule during which many who understood the subject matter and/or the geo-political dynamics in Zimbabwe recommended against doing the project - the crew ran into some 'difficulties' in Zimbabwe during production. As a result, all blogs written during the shoot had to be temporarily removed out of concern for safety of director Michealene C Risley & the crew!

We've come a long way since then and are very excited about where the project is headed in the next several weeks and months. Here is a re-cap at some of the key recent milestones:

- Huffington Post carried a series of blogs written by Michealene Risley describing the incidents during the shoot.

- The Tapestries trailer (recently updated for better readability) is featured as the #1 video under "Film and Animation" Category on YouTube. Stay tuned for more teasers!

- IndieGoGo, a new community site which connects filmmakers with their fan bases and supporters and launching at an exclusive Sundance 2008 event and party, will feature Tapestries as a launch partner. Other filmmakers signed up include Steven Starr (For Love or Water, 2008 Sundance selection), M dot Stange (We are the Strange, 2007 Sundance selection), and Chris Roberts (The Believer, 2003 Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winner).

- This blog recently won the New Communications Review’s ‘Award of Excellence’ due to the live blogs Michealene posted while in production in Zimbabwe.

- Our Facebook Group “Silent Bravery: Women of Africa” has close to 1,000 members and our continued collaborations include Stanford University to make headway on the social initiative leading up to the film's release.

- Keplers' bookstore in Menlo Park and La Belle Day Spa in Palo Alto are carrying a line of silver jewelry (also available online at http://savehope.blogspot.com) that designer Janelle Gibson co-launched with Freshwater Haven (the non-profit side of Fresh Water Spigot) to support the project.

We look forward to your continued support!