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Dear Friends,

 

THE BEST NEWS:

We have now met the requirements of our matching grant from the Rudolph Steiner Foundation and can use the $36,000 raised to put toward the finish of our movie about the battle to gain access to Love Cemetery.  THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!

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But no surpise: we need more.  There is an end in sight, but we are just a third of the way there.  We have mulitple grant requests out to help with the journey to screens, streaming services and classrooms.  There is an important message in our film about being locked out from our history and the importance of the struggle to know who we are.

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Please listen to one of our Producers about what motivated him to join our team: 

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Aldo Billingslea is presently a Professor of Theater Arts at Santa Clara University.

 

 

 

 

Or if you need to know more, keep with us here.

 

Many of you know about our efforts down through the years to bring attention to the struggle for a Black descendent community in East Texas to regain access to their ancestral burial ground named Love Cemetery.  The Resurrecting Love documentary grew out of my book Love Cemetery, Unburying the Secret History of Slaves.  The film shows the hidden heartbreak that lies under the larger effort going on countrywide today in 2022 to address racism and reconciliation (and possibly even, dare we say it, reparations).

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Black cemeteries have been cut up, paved over, used for cattle grazing, turned into playgrounds and parking lots, and drowned in man-made reservoirs.  As one Black preacher put it, “How can you draw strength from your roots when you don’t know who your people are or where you came from?”

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We are ready to finish our film that was provoked by this story.  We need to approach communities beyond those we have already touched; we will screen our hour-long rough cut to selected audiences around the country for the purpose of raising further monies and awareness.  Your help will allow us to do fundraising screenings in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Marshall, Texas.

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Here is a six or so minute preview of the movie:

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To finish Resurrecting Love we need to shoot new interviews and find additional archival footage so we can tell the history that never made it into our school books.  Then we must enter a post production period: 1.) to re-view the 170 hours of footage already shot and make further selections, 2.) to add a narration (hopefully voiced by someone like Viola Davis), 3.) to clear the rights for the archival footage and music, 4.) to professionally mix the sound and color correct the picture,  and 5.) to do the further outreach necessary to bring large audiences when we finally reach film festivals, theaters, television screens and classrooms.

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​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​MORE NEWS:

When, three years ago, Barry Opper, a film and television Producer and friend, first saw some of our footage, he told us that he thought we had a feature length documentary here, an important one.   He volunteered to edit an hour-long cut as proof of concept.  He did and it brought virgin viewers to tears and desires to get involved.  Besides Barry's formidable resume some of which you can see on our "Producers / Crew" page, he has run two non-profit corporations which have received numerous grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Commission and assorted other Foundations.  He will be administering our grant from RSF and overseeing our other fund-raising efforts.  And, best of all, he has agreed to be my producing partner on the film's finish.  We are very lucky. 

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Thank you for showing your interest and helping us stand against racism and for truth and reconciliation.  As our country struggles with racial injustice, and states like Texas are imposing limits on how race, slavery and history can be taught, we are working hard to complete the feature length documentary Resurrecting Love. 

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How You Can Help:

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• Donate: Please give as generously as you can.

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• Or, if you prefer not to contribute via credit card or the other digital options, you can donate by check made payable to our fiscal agent: "Fractured Atlas" and snail mailed to my producing partner:  Barry Opper, 9620 Clybourn Ave, Sun Valley, CA 91352 and be sure to note "for Resurrecting Love" in the memo area on your check.

• All contributions made to Fractured Atlas on our behalf are tax-deductible. 

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And in addition you can:​

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• Make Connections: Please help link us to other donors, sponsors and investors.  You may know of a private foundation or other programs that could help fund the documentary.  Communicate with us, please. 

• Get the Word Out: Send the link to this page - GREAT NEWS | Love Cemetery Doc (resurrectinglovemovie.org) - via email to friends, tell them you've already helped and suggest they consider doing so as well.  Let people know you think we are worthy.  Talk about us on social media, attach this link to messages to your followers.

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Thank you in advance for your help and support.

 

 

 

China Galland

writer, producer, activist

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PS: Please become a subscriber and/or communicate with us.  Do it by clicking the button below.

 

 

 

 

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