Story Leads to Action

From The Fledgling Fund

The Fledgling Fund is excited to again be a part of STORY LEADS TO ACTION, a monthly series at the 92Y Tribeca Screening Room presented by Chicken and Egg Pictures and Working Films.

Thursday, October 15th at 7:30 PM

We're kicking-off the 2009-2010 series with a celebratory screening of the Academy Award-winning FREEHELD, directed by Cynthia Wade.  This evening will celebrate HOW and WHY the Power of S H O R T film and a rigorous OUTREACH campaign can make a difference.

About the Film: Lieutenant Laurel Hester is dying. All she wants to do is leave her pension benefits to her life partner, Stacie, so she can afford to keep their house. Laurel's request is denied because they are not husband and wife. After spending a lifetime fighting for justice for other people, Laurel-a veteran New Jersey detective-launches a final battle. Knuckle-biting and dramatic, FREEHELD chronicles a dying policewoman's bitter fight to provide for the love of her life.

This interactive q&a and discussion with Co-Producer and Outreach Coordinator, Robin Honan, and Steven Goldstein, Chair, Garden State Equality will analyze the filmmaker's strategy, measure impact where possible and make links to the local/national struggle.


SCREENING DETAILS:
Evening starts at 7.30PM
Moderated by
Emily Verellen of The Fledgling Fund

BUY TICKETS HERE
92YTribeca
200 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10013

With the combined support of Chicken & Egg Pictures and The Fledgling Fund, Cynthia Wade first premiered Freeheld at Sundance 2007. Once there she was able to experience the full market value of her film and strategically leverage "the buzz," her Sundance Special Jury Award and the film's critical acclaim into serious public interest and popular support. Powered by an aggressive community/audience engagement campaign that brought together some unlikely allies (policemen and gay rights activists), Freeheld was embraced by a movement and subsequently by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. By the time her nomination was announced, she had leveraged a year of acclaim (and a national call for gay and lesbian citizens to have the right to transfer their county/city pensions to their domestic partners at the time of death) into a Summer 2008 broadcast on HBO/Cinemax. Ms. Wade followed through by using her Oscar acceptance speech to speak about the lack of civil rights for all U.S. citizens, setting in motion a multi-year strategy for addressing one of the hottest, most divisive wedge issues during a general election year.