Lead Safe America

on May 15
America's Secret Epidemic
- Documentary
- Portland, OR
Lead Safe America
Posted project update #26

One Month on Facebook! Shooting to complete the film by September!
Tomorrow is the film's Facebook page's one-month anniversary! Do you think we can reach 400 likes on our one-month anniversary? (We're at 350 now!) Please share this page with at least one friend today and ask them to click the link and "like" it! It's not just a facebook page, it's not just a film - we're creating a movement to protect kids here! Spreading the word about this is truly important. Thank you! http://www.facebook.com/MisleadMovie
We're also considering launching a phase 2 kickstarter project and would love your input. If you have ideas and thoughts to help make it a success, please post them here. Thank you!
Post Comment
on May 7
America's Secret Epidemic
- Documentary
- Portland, OR
Lead Safe America
Posted project update #25

Facebook page... https://www.facebook.com/MisleadMovie
P.S. if you haven't yet clicked this link and clicked the "like" button on the Facebook page for the film, please do! More "likes" will truly make a difference in our future fundraising efforts for the film and will also support our outstanding requests for additional corporate support! Thank you! https://www.facebook.com/MisleadMovie
Post Comment
on May 7
America's Secret Epidemic
- Documentary
- Portland, OR
Lead Safe America
Posted project update #24

New trailer and new name ... MISLEAD: America's Secret Epidemic
Hi All - for those who have not seen our new "draft" trailer yet - please take a look. We are in the process of / working on requesting permission for the news clips and music. Your input is welcome and even encouraged.
Ed Brown, Director of the film Acceptable Levels edited for us - he's a new member of the team! (Volunteering his time like the rest of us, it's amazing how this is all coming together with the participation and support of people who truly believe in the cause and the message!)
If you have ideas for how we may be able to raise the rest of what we need to raise to finish the film this summer (details on the link) please let me know! Most of our costs are travel and technology related... my e-mail tamararubin@mac.com
http://misleadmovie.com/Mislead_Movie/PrivateTrailer.html
Post Comment
on May 2
Lead Safe America
backed a project
The Winding Stream Phase 2 - Post-Production Carter-Cash Doc by beth harrington

The Winding Stream is the story of the family at the heart of Americana music - the legendary Carters and Cashes.
- Documentary
- Vancouver, WA
- 29% funded $14,607 pledged
- 164 backers
on April 16
America's Secret Epidemic
- Documentary
- Portland, OR
Lead Safe America
Posted project update #23

New Facebook page and NEW TITLE for the film!
Hello all - I've been attending seminars and meetings recently for folks in the documentary film world (Portland's Women-in-Film and the NW Documentary Center among others) and everyone has emphasized the importance of having a Facebook page for your film as a tool in raising awareness and raising $ for production - the more "likes" one has (of course!) the more likely funding agencies will listen to what you have to say. (We have several grant applications out there seeking funds to cover our remaining production costs - including Sundance!) Please check out our brand new page (not much on it yet of course!) and "like" it - our film's new title is there. Let me know what you think - Ed Brown, creator of the new film Unacceptable Levels suggested the name change! Thank you Ed, It's perfect! We are headed to film again in New Orleans this week and Ed has also volunteered to edit our New Orleans footage that we are presenting at the National Lead Conference in New Orleans on May 4th.
We are so lucky to have such an incredible community of generous supporters of this project and this message, including - amazingly - critical core technical contributors like Ed, that are willing to go out on a limb and volunteer their time and energy to help bring this film to the public!
https://www.facebook.com/MisleadMovie
Buttons are on their way - thanks to all who have responded to the survey!
Tamara
Post Comment
on March 26
America's Secret Epidemic
- Documentary
- Portland, OR
Lead Safe America
Posted project update #22

Our One Year Anniversary! / National Lead Conference in New Orleans in May
Hi All- we're sending this e-mail (below) out to our mailing list today (those of you who are on our Facebook group - just got a copy as well.) If you are not on the Foundation's e-mail list and would like to be, please let me know. As far as your Kickstarter incentives... buttons are at the printer and will be done soon - we'll be sending those out when they are ready - along with bumper stickers and an official thank you letter (stating our 501(c)3 status - for your taxes if you want to deduct your support!) If we don't yet have your mailing address, please let us know what it is so we can get your incentives to you. Thank you!
__________________________
Hello friends,
First I would like to say thank you so very much (again!) to the 246 people [and businesses!] who contributed to the foundation and the film through our Kickstarter project. The footage from Kickstarter—if you want to share it with others—can also now be found on the home page of our website.
Plans are to continue filming through June, finish editing the film in July and August and then to begin submitting to film festivals as soon as Fall 2012.
We are excited about the progress of the film and the amazing footage we have been getting. We will be premiering an updated cut of the highlights of our footage to date [with an emphasis on our New Orleans footage] with the public at the closing session of the National Lead Conference on Friday, May 4, 2012 at 9:00 a.m. We will also have some special guests with us that day - parents and others from the New Orleans lead poisoning prevention advocacy community and I hope to see many of you there. http://www.healthyhousingconferences.com/website/
I am working on our one-year numbers now (and - while I don't have exact figures available just yet); it looks like we had contributions from just about 400 donors in our first year—amazing!
A first pass shows that 86% of those contributions have come from individual supporters, with 14% of the gifts coming from the corporate sector. I think this clearly shows that the power behind a grass roots movement really does start with individuals and that none of us could be effective in our advocacy without the support of the people behind the message.
With just 6 days to the one year anniversary of the Lead Safe America Foundation, I wanted to remind people of our lifetime sponsorship opportunity that ends on March 31st. Businesses (or individuals) that donate $500 or more by our one-year anniversary will get a lifetime listing on our site. The "Lifetime Sponsor" page ( http://leadsafeamerica.org/leadsafeamerica.org/EPA_RRP_Sponsors.html ) will always be prominently linked to the home page of our site - even throughout our PR campaign for the film - so it's a nice benefit in addition to the other benefits of sponsorship (including a tax-deduction as we are a 501(c)3 nonprofit!)
If your business (or you) could benefit from that permanent public acknowledgement/exposure/"click traffic" through a lifetime sponsorship listing & weblink on our site (or if you are just feeling generous today!), please consider making a $500 contribution this week and join the many others who have come on board as lifetime sponsors of the Lead Safe America Foundation. Your support will help us get the word out to the American people that lead poisoning is still here, that one in three American children have unsafe levels of lead in their blood and that lead poisoning is entirely preventable through hiring RRP certified contractors, using lead safe work practices and taking other precautions to keep lead out of your child's environment.
You can click on the PayPal "Donate" button here: http://leadsafeamerica.org/leadsafeamerica.org/Donate.html to make a contribution with an electronic check or credit card. A copy of our 501(c)3 determination letter can be downloaded here: http://leadsafeamerica.org/leadsafeamerica.org/Blog/Entries/2011/11/9_501%28c%293.html
Sincerely,Tamara Rubin Executive Director, Lead Safe America Foundation http://www.leadsafeamerica.org cell: 415-609-3182
Below is a photo from our trip back East - the [lead painted] turn of the century farmhouse on Main Street in Hingham that I grew up in (1970 to 1988) ... Ah the fond memories of helping my mother strip the woodwork in the living room when I was a kid (yikes!)
Post Comment
on February 26
America's Secret Epidemic
- Documentary
- Portland, OR
Lead Safe America
Posted project update #21

A Proper Thank You! America's Secret Epidemic coming to you from New Mexico...
... by way of Tennessee, Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas!
Thank you all (again!) for making this project a success. We'll be working on getting you your backer rewards soon! The success of this film is especially important in light of the recent cuts to the CDC lead program—effectively eliminating the program entirely. Now more than ever, the importance of getting this message to America's parents (and homeowners and landlords and realtors and pediatricians and policymakers and contractors) is critical, if we want to protect American children from the wholly preventable and permanently life-changing burden of lead poisoning.
Just yesterday, via an e-mail to Leadnet, Rebecca Morley (Executive Director of the National Center for Healthy Housing, new mom and interviewee for our film) shared that "By the way, a new fact sheet from CDC (in draft form) puts the number of impacted children at 12.3 million. .... One could add to this the number of kids from 6-18 and get a higher number yet." If we did expand this to include all children up to age 18 using simple math, that would end up with at least 36,000,000 children impacted—more than 50% of American kids. [The difference between the number she is citing and the 22,000,000 we have cited, is that our 22 million number is only looking at a less controversial statistical snapshot—just those children with BLL 2.5 and up, while the 36 million number is looking at a Blood Lead Level (BLL) of 1 microgram per deciliter and up (which in a less hostile political environment, is even closer to where we wish everyone would "take the pulse" of this disease! For context, the naturally occurring level of lead found to be in pre-industrial humans is .016 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood and so a BLL of 2.5 is more than 150 times the natural background level—of this potent neurotoxin.) In any case - it's a lot of children and everyone agrees that there is no safe level of lead in a child's blood.] It's very exciting that the CDC is finally getting on board with making the "true" numbers [more realistic figures] public knowledge!
The past 12 days have been VERY busy! Your Kickstarter support helped us get to New Orleans and film several expert interviews and family interviews there... including research scientist (focusing on lead in soil) Howard Mielke and the Sheriff of New Orleans (doesn't that sound dramatic! "We shot the Sheriff" while we were in New Orleans... on film of course!) Marlin Gusman (thanks to Lead Safe America Foundation Board Member Beth Butler – who we also interviewed while we were in New Orleans.) We met with and interviewed five NOLA families as well, including Sarah Hess with NOLA Unleaded – Sarah's daughter was poisoned first in her home and then (when they went to her mother's home to "stay somewhere safe" while her home was being remediated) her daughter was poisoned again, with elevated levels higher than she had initially had at her home as a result of contaminated soil at a popular New Orleans playground near her mother's home. With Howard's help, Sarah, her husband and some other parents banded together to get the soil tested and cleaned up at 13 New Orleans playgrounds. Sarah also invited Nabil Baddour over while we were visiting her home—Nabil is the founder of NOLA Unleaded, and he had some amazing things to say in our conversation with him! We can't wait to share our New Orleans footage with the world; quite a full week! We're excited that we'll be returning to New Orleans and will be testing children and homes for the film and see what we can do to help and make a difference through the film and creating awareness of the issue.
Emblematic of the issue: The photo below shows a beautiful, typical historic New Orleans home covered in deteriorating, cracking, peeling lead paint (unfortunately also typical) ... with a Prius in front. [This home is also right down the street from a local popular cafe that serves fresh pressed juices and organic and vegetarian options... and nearby a food co-op that sells organic and whole foods. The people in this neighborhood obviously have an understanding of pollution and environmental toxicity and of their responsibility and potential to make a difference in creating a healthier world... but still - in this pocket of awareness - there is an apparent ignorance about the "elephant in the room" - the lead paint covering every home in the neighborhood, potentially poisoning all of the residents and limiting their children's ability to achieve their true potential.]
Post Comment
on February 14
Funded!
America's Secret Epidemic by Lead Safe America

A documentary feature about America's hidden childhood lead poisoning epidemic which impacts 22,000,000 children in our country today.
- Documentary
- Portland, OR
- 100% funded $10,071 pledged
- 246 backers
- Funded Feb 14, 2012
on February 14
America's Secret Epidemic
- Documentary
- Portland, OR
Lead Safe America
Posted project update #20

We're funding in 7 hours! -America's Secret Epidemic coming to you from Nashville,Tennessee!
Happy Valentine's Day everyone!
For those of you who are on my e-mail list, please excuse the duplicate e-mail. Since the majority of you are not... I wanted to send out one final backer update before we fund... with a photo of the reasons I am making this movie.
Thank you everyone for your support!

Right now we have 1,408 Twitter followers - 610 Facebook "likes" - 239 Kickstarter Backers and just 7 hours left to go. Our average contribution is $42! (Kind of poetic since I chose the length of the project as 42 days... 42 ... the answer to the question of Life, The Universe & Everything... sci-fi fans - you get the reference - it's also my age this year :-) ... my new lucky number!

This Kickstarter project was designed to fund one month of filming. Other months of filming are being sponsored by ZipWall, ThermoFisher Scientific / (Niton) and Dustless Technologies so far - with additional support from many other companies in the industry - including 3M/ LeadCheck.

In these last 7 hours please consider helping a friend (perhaps your sweetheart - since it is Valentine's day?) log in to Kickstarter so they can pledge even just $1 to add their name to this project and to this movement to protect kids! Anything we raise over our $10,000 goal will go to help cover the costs of additional months of filming (we have about four months to go that still need to be covered!) Plus the more backers we have (even those that just pledge $1) the stronger our requests for other grants and corporate sponsorships will be (like our application to the Sundance Film Festival!)

Thank you again for everything!

Sincerely,
Tamara
The reasons I'm making this movie (this is a photo of the boys in Orlando the other day - on the trolley on the way to the International Builders Show)
Avi (on the right - Age 7)... Lead poisoned at 8 months old.
AJ (in the middle - Age 9) Lead poisoned when he was just 3 years old.
& Charlie (on the left - Age 3) trying to keep him as lead-free as possible!
Post Comment
on February 13
America's Secret Epidemic
- Documentary
- Portland, OR
Lead Safe America
Posted project update #19

Go TEAM! - America's Secret Epidemic coming to you from Locust Grove, Georgia
Good morning everyone!
You may not know it but you are part of an amazing team! 235 of you rallying together in support of this film and in support of getting this issue out to the public in a BIG way! This team is made up of a bunch of smaller teams and I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge them...
- All three Healthy Child Healthy World Moms On A Mission are on board - Shelby Rodriguez - the 2009 Winner and Penelope Jagessar Chaffer (working on the the film Toxic Baby) the 2010 winner (and me!) - not to mention several members of the staff and board of Healthy Child - including C.J. Kettler and Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff and Margie Kelly!
- The staff, management and innovators at LockUp Lead are on board as a team supporting this project - one of the companies that is out there creating innovative solutions for minimizing lead dust hazards to protect children.
- Members of the team at Magellan Biosciences - creator of the LeadCare II system- the company that creates the first-line of defense technology for portable instant blood lead testing in medical offices.
- The team at Lew Corporation are on board- a leader in RRP training - our biggest backer day was the day all the Lew Corp folks got on board!
- More than a dozen members of the team at Anthony Home Improvements is on board-an EPA RRP Certified renovation firm,
- The team at EcoStrip (yet another innovator of solutions to the problem! a way to safely strip paint)
- Members of the 3M/LeadCheck team! (first line of defense for homeowners and tenants to test for lead in paint and get immediate results.)
- Jeff and Will and The ZipWall team (yet ANOTHER innovative product and solution to the problem - we're so excited to feature many of these innovations in the film! Lead poisoning is the most preventable environmental illness out there and all these folks are giving us the tools we need for primary prevention and protecting kids!)
- Darren Diess and The Dustless Technologies team - creators of innovative solutions for point of origin dust collection during renovation (tool shroud vacuum attachments and Hepa vacs.) If the dust never gets into the environment it can't be spread around to poison kids!
- A group of people who I consider role models and leaders in documentary film are on board including Joe Cross (Director and subject of Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead), Robby Kenner (Director of Food, Inc.) and Craig Spurlock (Morgan's brother and a partner and adviser in his films), Matthew Podolsky - The Director of Scavenger Hunt (a film about the near extinction of the California Condor as a result of lead poisoning) and Founder of Wild Lens - and many many many friends and partners of Daniel from all of the films he has worked on over the years!
- Rick Karp and the team at Cole Hardware in San Francisco - an innovator in the concept of "green hardware stores" - We LOVE Cole Hardware!
- Angelita Menchaca and the team at BuilderLink - an information hub and networking site for contractors, renovators and home builders around the country.
- Many of experts that we have already interviewed for the film (or are going to interview) are also backers of the kickstarter project: David Rosner, Jerry Markowitz, Steven Gilbert, Bruce Lanphear, Pierre Erville, Howard Mielke, Jim Peralta, Liz Wilde, Doug Farquhar and others!
- I can't go without mentioning my very supportive board members that are backing the project - including Stephen Klein & Paul Toub in Philly, Jennifer Taggart (The Smart Mama), Beth Butler in New Orleans, Louisa Filmore Jones in Portland, Helene Marshall in Napa, Jonathan Klane in Fairfield - Maine,
- And of course all of our friends and family members (and all of the mothers of lead poisoned children and others who are on board too!) - really the foundation for this movement - people in the community and people who have believed in us and supported this project from the beginning!
Thank you all for your support! Just 34 hours to go to the end of our project - so there's still some final opportunities to share it with others! Please keep sharing! We have 605 facebook likes and 235 backers today (and 1339 Twitter followers!)
Photos for the day... the Wild Lens film had some amazing footage of Bald Eagles convulsing and dying because they had been poisoned by lead. The birds had eaten lead shot when scavenging on deer that had been shot and then wandered off in to the forest to die. Veterinary doctors working with the animals know this is how they died because they found deer fur and shot in their stomachs. They also used Magellan's LeadCare II system to test the blood of these animals for lead.
The symbol of our country being killed by lead - today in 2012 - in spite of all we know - is a profound example of how this issue impacts our entire planet and is a problem that needs to be solved today. In Orlando the other day - I passed this statue and read the words on the marker and wanted to share them with you.
Post Comment