suport if you can.
thanks
Pakistan film: a small way you can help now
Dear friends,
Many of you have been following the documentary film on the human
dimension of contemporary Pakistan that Fawad Butt and I are working
on through this email list, at in-person meetings around North
America, and online. Fawad and I are now firmly planning to spend a
month in Pakistan, from late September to late October. We appreciate
all the moral and other support that many of you have already given
us, in what we feel is a project that will be valuable to better
understanding and human connections between Pakistan and the West.
We’re now virtually “passing the hat,” asking you to support our first
trip financially, to any extent you can. We’ve created a “ChipIn”
widget online to make it easy to donate small amounts; you can also
copy the HTML code and post the widget on your website or blog. We set
up the widget on August 4 and have already raised US$740 toward our
initial US$5000 goal through ChipIn (plus a couple of donations
through other channels), entirely through private approaches to
friends and family. Now we’re taking our appeal wider and asking you
to, well, chip in. The US$5000 represents only part of the cost of
this first trip, but meeting that goal will certainly help.
Please contribute what you can. If you contribute US$100 or more
before the end of August, we’ll send you a copy of my book Alive and
Well in Pakistan: A Human Journey in a Dangerous Time, shipped to any
US address (or shipped to any address worldwide if you contribute US
$125 or more).
I’ve pasted below a more detailed letter. The letter is also online,
along with the ChipIn widget, here:
http://www.aliveandwellinpakistan.com/Sept-Oct_08_trip_letter.html
Some exciting things are in the works, and Fawad and I will be letting
you know about them soon. Things are definitely accelerating toward
what promises to be an exciting and very fruitful 3-4 weeks in Pakistan.
Gratefully,
Ethan
Author, Alive and Well in Pakistan
“Magnificent” - Ahmed Rashid
“Wonderful … so worldly yet personal” - Edwidge Danticat
http://www.aliveandwellinpakistan.com
http://www.ethancasey.com
Dear friends of the Alive and Well in Pakistan documentary film project,
As many of you know, this project began in November 2007 as a
political documentary focused on President Musharraf and his era. But
it quickly became something much more durably interesting and useful:
a nonfiction film chronicling human stories from Pakistan, in the
context of recent and ongoing national and global history.
As we’ve been telling audiences around North America this year, our
intention is to show the human dimension of contemporary Pakistan in
the foreground, not ignoring the story’s only too newsworthy aspects,
but relegating them - for once - to the background.
We’re planning a month-long trip to Pakistan - the first of several -
starting in late September to gather fresh interviews, stories and
photographs, to have a first round of meetings with contacts inside
Pakistan, and to start choosing specific stories to include in the
film. When we return to the US in late October, we’ll be hitting the
road with an updated presentation and slide show. In the Pacific
Northwest alone, we already have events booked at:
-
the World Affairs Council of Seattle (World Affairs Council), who
want us to speak, on October 30, specifically on what Pakistanis are
saying about the US election; -
branches of the King County (greater Seattle) Library System on
October 29, November 20 and November 22; -
the Pakistani community in Vancouver, British Columbia, who are
organizing and supporting a fundraiser for the film in November; -
the Vancouver office of Microsoft Corporation, which is planning a
public presentation for about 300 people.
To help cover the cost of our coming trip, we’ve set up a “ChipIn”
widget online and are sending out a general appeal by email.
The $5000 we hope to raise with this first ChipIn widget is only the
first step up a long staircase. You can help now by giving literally
any amount, to help push up both the number of dollars and the number
of separate contributors shown. Simply by contributing, you will set
an example for others and help create a “bandwagon effect”. Of course
we’ll gratefully accept large contributions, but even very small ones
will move the thermometer and add to the number of contributors shown.
So please, give ANY amount.
(These contributions through ChipIn are not tax-deductible; this is
the online version of passing the hat. If you are interested in making
a tax-deductible donation, please email Ethan; we can accept those
through our connection with the nonprofit, Seattle-based Northwest
Film Forum.)
You can make a contribution securely either directly through PayPal or
by credit card through the ChipIn widget, which is online in the right
column of this page and on this website’s front page:
http://www.aliveandwellinpakistan.com
From now until the end of August, anyone who contributes US$100 or
more will get a signed copy of the book Alive and Well in Pakistan,
shipped to any US address.
You can also help by putting the ChipIn widget on your own website or
blog. To do this, simply click “Copy” to copy the widget’s HTML code,
then paste the code onto your own page.
We would appreciate as well if you would post a supportive comment, as
our friend and contributor Roger Tatoud has done, when you make your
contribution. We’ll publish these later on the film website. In the
meantime, they’re shown online here:
ChipIn: Pakistan trip Oct 2008
Many thanks!
Fawad Butt
Ethan Casey