Tonight: Montana PBS to Air Inlaws & Outlaws!

Some good news for Montana- Inlaws and Outlaws will be screened on Montana PBS tonight.

From the director, Drew Emery:

Montana friends!
Set your DVRs for Sunday night 6/9 10:30 pm: your local PBS station is airing our marriage documentary Inlaws & Outlaws — along with our story update: Just Marriage.

If you believe in love… and equality, please do pass on the word to friends & family!

Drew was in Montana last year, sharing the film with audiences in Helena and Bozeman. It’s an opportunity to see what love looks like up close.

Grab your peeps and watch this- it’s amazing.

Just Marriage

Nov9 by D Gregory Smith

I’m really proud of my dear friend Drew Emery and his film. His passion and vision were priceless in the approval of this measure to legalize Marriage Equality in Washington State- and all around the country. From him and our friends at The True Stories Project:

We can think of no better way to celebrate this amazing day than by releasing our latest video: Just Marriage: from Outlaws to Inlaws.

For a long time, our audiences have been asking for an update on the lives of our storytellers. When we we were invited to bring Inlaws & Outlaws to public television, we decided this was the perfect time to do just that.

So enjoy. And as you reflect on how far we’ve all come these past eight years, give a moment of thanks to the thousands of people from all walks of lives who set the ball rolling but stepping up and telling their stories.

Note: If you haven’t yet seen Inlaws & Outlaws, be warned; this update is chockfull of spoilers!

Inlaws & Outlaws On Public TV! (dgsmith.org)
Inlaws and Outlaws (sapphospeaks.wordpress.com)
Same-sex marriage opponents concede likely R-74 passage (king5.com)
Five Qualities of a Healthy Marriage (jessejacksonmirega.wordpress.com)

Inlaws & Outlaws On Public TV!

Oct27 by D Gregory Smith

Delightful news from our friends at The True Stories Project:

WE MADE IT! We set a fundraising goal of raising $50,000 to bring Inlaws & Outlaws to public television – and thanks to over 120 of our supporters, we raised over $50, 246 – enough to launch us onto public television!

As of today, Inlaws & Outlaws is not ony available to 350+ PBS and public television affiliates around the US – but 15 stations have already scheduled the film in the next few weeks!

Thank you to everyone who contributed to make this happen!

We especially want to express our gratitude for the major support we received from our Executive Producer Bob Lemon, the Faygele ben Miriam Fund and four of our favorite outlaws – Jane Abbott Lighty & Pete-e Petersen and Frank Chaffee & John Gliessman. You put us over the top – and on TV.

Changing Hearts + Minds…

We’re still presenting screenings of Inlaws & Outlaws as part of ourHearts + Minds Campaign, including here in Washington where we’re using the film to support Referendum 74, but we’re about to reach a whole heckuva lot more people when the film is presentedFriday during primetime on KCTS 9 (Seattle) and KYVE (Yakima ).

Together, these stations reach over 75% of Washington residents – one of the reasons we were so determined to reach our goal of bringing Inlaws & Outlaws to public TV before Nov. 6th…

Wondering where else the film is being shown on public TV? Colorado, Ohio, Oregon, Illinois, West Virginia, New York… And we’re only just beginning.

Our new video: Just Marriage, from Outlaws to Inlaws…

Premiering Friday night following the film is our new 14-minute video short featuring director Drew Emery updating audiences on many of the stories in Inlaws & Outlaws.

It’s Just Marriage: from Outlaws to Inlaws, a snapshot of how far we’ve come. Check out the Sneak Peek of the video here.

Exciting times, yes? We think so. This is a critical time for marriage equality in the US – and the election will only raise the stakes even more. So we’re determined to bring our stories that much further to reach more hearts and minds, whether it’s with one of our community screenings in a school, church, temple or community center, or whether it’s on public tv. We’d love to have you on board!*

And to all the folks who made this big leap possible, we have nothing but love & gratitude.

*If you want to support our our Hearts + Minds Campaign, we welcome your tax-deductible donations. You can either donate safely online or send us a check. Your support makes all the difference in the world!

Help Inlaws & Outlaws Make It To Public TV! (dgsmith.org)
Tonight on KCTS: Inlaws & Outlaws (slog.thestranger.com)
Inlaws and Outlaws (sapphospeaks.wordpress.com)

Help Inlaws & Outlaws Make It To Public TV!

Sep7 by D Gregory Smith

One of the best (and most elegant) pieces of human understanding and compassion is Drew Emery’s film Inlaws & Outlaws. I’ve written about the Montana screenings we had this past spring and the fantastic impact it had on the audiences that gathered in Helena and Bozeman. It’s an amazing piece of work.

Now, this little gem has a chance for public distribution- and a better tool for compassion and understanding of gay relationships (and all relationships in my opinion) would be hard to find.

If everybody in America saw this film, opposition to marriage equality would melt away like a bad mood in a room full of puppies.

From the True Stories Project:

We’ve got terrific news! The National Education Telecommunications Association (NETA) has offered to distribute a full presentation of Inlaws & Outlaws on public television! That means that, if we act quickly, the film will be made available to virtually all public television stations in the US this Fall – including over 350+ PBS affiliates!

This is huge!

Public TV reaches over 117 million viewers a week. If we slice off even a modest amount of that, we’ll bring Inlaws & Outlaws to a much, much larger audience than it’s ever had. Just as same-sex marriage has finally arrived centerstage with President Obama’s support, we have the opportunity to reach millions of households with true stories we know change hearts & minds.

But to meet our deadline, we need your help — and we need it now.
Donate

We need our first $50,000 in underwriting by the end of September. Your support will pay for vital post-production for broadcast, closed captioning, station relations and more. Can you help?

You betcha. I’m in. Anybody else?

Donate here.

Inlaws and Outlaws (davidhortonsblog.com)
Greer Among Young NW LGBTQ Leaders Invited to The White House (dgsmith.org)
Share Your Story- Montana LGBT Couples Needed (dgsmith.org)

Inlaws & Outlaws To Be Shown At MT Pride 2012

Jun7 by D Gregory Smith

Did you miss Inlaws and Outlaws last month? Well, you have another shot!

Montana Pride presents an encore screening of Inlaws & Outlaws as part of this year’s Pride celebration.

The film is Saturday, June 16th at 6 pm at the Procrastinator Theatre in the Strand Union Building on the Montana State University campus inBozeman. The MSU SUB is the headquarters for Montana Pride this year- and there will be lots of activities available for all ages.

This community screening is FREE and open to all- and DVD sales benefit Montana Pride.

See you there!

Inlaws And Outlaws Heads To Montana! (dgsmith.org)
True Story (dgsmith.org)
Montana Pride 2012: It’s Not Just A Party (dgsmith.org)
Montana Pride Announces: Jessie And The Toy Boys (dgsmith.org)
Montana Pride 2012: Details! (dgsmith.org)
Pride Foundation In Montana: Promoting Equality And Generosity- With A New Website (dgsmith.org)

Preview: Inlaws and Outlaws in Bozeman!

May24 by D Gregory Smith

The screening of Inlaws And Outlaws was received with great delight last night in Helena. One audience member told me “I’ve never laughed so hard one minute and then in the next moved so naturally to such empathy. Never. I loved it.”
And you can, too.
The filmmaker and director of Inlaws and Outlaws, Drew Emery, was on Montana This Morning to give viewers a taste of his film screening tomorrow night at the Bozeman Public Library.

See it here.

Inlaws And Outlaws Heads To Montana! (dgsmith.org)
Montana Pride 2012: Details! (dgsmith.org)
True Story (dgsmith.org)

Helena Screening Tonight!

May23 by D Gregory Smith

Don’t forget- tonight Inlaws and Outlaws will be screened at Plymouth Congregational Church at 7pm! Filmmaker Drew Emery will be introducing the film and staying around after for a Q&A. Copies of the film will also be available for purchase.

What do you get when you fall in love?

Inlaws & Outlaws cleverly weaves together the true stories of couples and singles— both gay and straight — and all into a collective narrative that is as hilarious as it is heartbreaking.

At the top of the film, you meet real people one on one. You don’t know who’s gay or straight or who’s with whom. As their stories unfold and stereotypes fall by the wayside, you won’t care because you’ll be rooting for everybody. With candor, good humor, great music and real heart, Inlaws & Outlaws gets past all the rhetoric to embrace what we have in common:

We love.

Inlaws And Outlaws Heads To Montana! (dgsmith.org)
True Story (dgsmith.org)

True Story

May18 by D Gregory Smith

From my friends at the True Stories Project:

Last week President Obama “evolved” on marriage equality, coming to the conclusion that, personally, he supported the right to marry for gay and lesbian couples.

We couldn’t be any happier or prouder – after all, we’re in the evolution business, nudging along hearts and minds one audience at a time.

In fact, last month, we reached our 500th community screening of Inlaws & Outlaws with a very special screening to raise money for our new partners, Washington United for Marriage.

As wonderful as that evening was, we are no less proud of our 499th screening, put together by two churches and a PFLAG chapter in a small town in southwestern Washington. They got over a hundred folks to turn out on a Tuesday night and got a wonderful article in the local paper. The 501st was presented by students at Centenary College in Shreveport, Louisiana as part of Diversity Week. A Virginia chapter of Integrity,the LGBT Episcopal organization put on the 502nd. And Number 503 kicked off the first Pride Week at Salish-Kootenai College, a small tribal school in rural Montana – the first of three screenings this month in that state.

We could go on — and we’d love to! But we can’t do it without you.

With marriage equality finally center stage on the national agenda, we wanted to make it even easier for schools, congregations, and non-profits to host our next 500 screenings.

Introducing our Equality Deal, an easy way to host a screening of Inlaws & Outlaws for free, raise money for your local organization and help more folks evolve in your community.

Here’s how it works:

First, you pick an Equality Deal package that’s the right size for you. The screening license is free when you purchase a package of DVDs with the Equality Deal.
Next, register your event with us, and we’ll make you a nice event page and give you access to lots of free tools to help promote it.
Then, at your film showing, you sell the DVDs at full price, making back your money and, keeping the extra for you or your cause.

We designed it to be win-win, and a great way for us to helping folks in our community evolve. Check out the Equality Deal. We are so ready to welcome you to our Outlaws Posse.

We all know that the fight for equality is truly about love, family, belonging, the pursuit of happiness – something all Americans can relate to. That’s been the idea behind Inlaws & Outlawsfrom the start. All we have to do is share our stories, and that truth becomes eviden to our friends and neighbors. And that’s how you build support for equality.
With gratitude and pride,
Drew Emery

PS If you’re not up for hosting a screening, consider making a donation to our Hearts + Minds Campaign. Every $100 of support helps us offer a free screening to a community organization to help create change.