We’ve had quite the good times back home in Philadelphia: sharing meals, telling stories and participating in a favorite past time - Buy Nothing Day. It comes from the fine folks at Adbusters, read up on the where & why at their website.
You might be aware some of the interviewees from The Ordinary Radicals have tons of fun every year putting on Buy Nothing Day events all across the US & Canada. One particular BND event close to our hearts here is the Philadelphia event. It’s organized by friends connected to The Simple Way and features everyone’s favorite thrift store super friends: The USAntiheroes!
Read up on their past antics while Jamie heads out to film their latest adventure.
Had the chance to sit down with Sandra B. from radio 105.9FM in London, Ontario. Sandra, her friend Clay and I got to hang out at their studio and talk on air about all sorts of what nots. I really enjoyed talking with them (we talked just a much off air as we did on air).
OK, time to drive to Ontario. I’m sure there’s a Tim Horton’s somewhere I can snag a cup of coffee. Why don’t we have Tim Horton’s in Philly? Too bad for us.
Hey there kids. So, I got to hop a flight to Detoit, pick up a rental car and scoot across the border at Port Huron to London, Ontario: population 350,000 and home of the University of Western Ontario. There I stayed with professor John Dool– who teaches systemic theology at St. Peter’s Seminary–and his wife Pat, who made a great cake for me! It was gooooooooood. I really enjoyed hearing what a Phd in religious studies had to say about the film and the shift happening in Christianity in the last couple years.
Next I had the chance to visit Mike Wagenman, a Chaplain at UWO and along with John, one of five groups in London who pitched in to host & promote The Ordinary Radicals at the theater on campus. We hung out all day and had a great time talking movies, social justice and meeting students excited about all that seems to be happening in small ways (with great love of course).
More than 200 excited folks came out to the screening, which could not have happened without the fine work of James Waite-the Coordinator for Western Film. It’s nice to hop from place to place like this and talk shop with a fellow film nerd.
Follow that up with nearly three hours of questions at the college pub’s back room with about 60 eager folks! It was a blast. Thanks so much to Theology on Tap, UWO, and the other great supporting groups that made this fantastic screening possible.
The two screenings in Covington KY were great! Here at the beautiful Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center, we had a morning screening just for clergy and they loved it. It was an interfaith hospitality event, so I’m happy to report to the 6 billion fellow non-christians out there: yes, they actually to talk to each other!
This evening’s event was filled with folks of all ages, and included Rick Weaver, the brother of Mark Weaver (of Price is Right Ordinary Radicals fame) and family. We had lots of great questions and tons of excited movie goers. Good time indeed.
A super special thanks to Steve Halloway, pastor of the Latonia Baptist Church who was so nice to have me stay with him and his wife at their house. Honestly, meeting folks and getting to talk & share a cup of coffee is pretty much my favorite part of all of this and the Halloway’s made it a fabulous time.
Next stop, Lexington with my good friends Billy & Maria!
Sending love from the road,
~jamie
PS: Just for kicks, here’s a time lapse I made of the backyard garden at The Carnegie that used sneakers for planters. So much fun.
In preparation for Sunday’s debut, there will be a LIVE radio program discussing the film. This Friday, Sept 19, from 8-9PM, Director Jamie Moffett, and Lisa Sharon Harper (Executive Director of NY Faith and Justice and featured interviewee in the film) will be guests on The People Power Hour with George Crossley on WAMT 1190AM - Orlando, FL. AND you can also listen live online at www.peoplepowerhour.com. Make sure to tune in!
Hello All! Man, I know it has been a while since I wrote on here. I literally fell into a great abyss called Post Production. For the last month we have been working insanely hard over here at the shop. Now I know that for some the word insane might have a lot of different connotations, so let me break it down for you. I, myself, have been doing 60-hour workweeks. And that is a light load compared to Jamie and Dave, who have at times, been sleeping here in two to three hour intervals while the film renders. They are at the extreme end of our madness though, and the rest of the crew falls somewhere in-between the two.
The month has been crazy, but friends have brought us cookies, invited us to breakfast, and dinner, and given us donuts and bagels. It is amazing how food can be such a morale booster. Especially when you are starving because you haven’t had time to go to the grocery store in a month.
August is now coming to a close, and with it our movie is about to open. It has been a crazy ride. And at times I didn’t think we were going to make it all the way through, by the deadline. But Jamie assembled himself a dream team, and they are pulling off what seemed impossible on paper.
I am excited to say that today the picture will be locked, (meaning that all we have left to do is sound and color adjustments and then we will be done and ready to show in theatres). We are so excited to share this story, that we are so passionate about with you all. It has been a steep sprint to the end, but we are now just feet away from the finish line. And I am not going to lie, the film is turning out to be better than I ever could have imagined it being. You don’t want to miss seeing it! I have watched the rough cut time and time again and I am stoked about seeing what the final version will be!
This is a bit different from the usual info you get here, but I thought it important to do a small part to help a friend in need. Our good friend Rebekah Joy Wilcox wrote that her father, Paul, is sick with a rare form of cancer called Leiomyosarcoma, which affects the soft tissue of the body.
So, would you mind signing this petition on behalf of Paul S. Wilcox, to help bring about awareness (and hopefully more research) of this form of cancer? It’s a small little act that’ll show the Wilcox family support and maybe, just maybe, bring about a tipping point towards a cure for this terrible illness.
So dear readers we’ve made it back home to Kensington, Philadelphia with a grand total of 3.5 terabytes of footage. So many amazing stories over these past 11,000 miles and we have one more to tell.
The last event from Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw’s Jesus For President book tour is this evening in Philadelphia at:
Well, after meeting up with Deanna and Dan in Atlanta, we drove down to Orlando, FL for the J4P event there…and it was massive. Thousands of people gathered at the Discovery Church to hear Chris & Shane tell their story. I have to tell you it was certainly the most fashionably dressed group of any on the tour, and I’ve pretty much been wearing the same cargo shorts for the last 5 weeks. Looks like they dug the story, as they were clearly moved by the message and eager to share their own stories with Chris and Shane after the event.
I’m most excited that my dear friends Zack and Andrea McKinley drove up to visit us and hang out. Zack has been a part of The Simple Way story years before there was an organization called The Simple Way, as he was a part of the group of us back at Eastern who came across the amazing moms and kids of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union who’d taken over the abandoned St. Edwards Roman Catholic church to get out of the cold, then subsequently arrested by the police on behalf of the church (and tried to have their kids removed). Anywhoo, important times and I’m so glad they got to visit. Here’s a shot of Zack & I back in the day while studying ethnomusicology in Cuba.
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