Hello everybody,

This is the last and final update for our Kickstarter campaign. Thank you so much for your generosity and support. With your help we not only hit our target we exceeded it! We have raised over $37,000 and we could not have done this without you.

Thank you so much.

We promise to make the best movie we can and look forward to sharing it with all of you.

Sincerely,

Leelai, Zee, Lacey, Francesca, and Mehret

p.s. Check out the latest picture from our team in Ethiopia. Looks like we found the place where we will be shooting the film!

Hello everybody,

We have two days left in our Kickstarter campaign and are 75% of the way there. Leelai and I have been watching the Kickstarter tally hourly and have been truly blown away by the generosity.  So in a fit of passion we decided to send you another video cheer from Ethiopia. 

Thank you so much for your support. Please pass our link on to one friend if you can.

Zee and Leelai

So how did a doctor exactly start producing films? I get asked this question a lot and my response is always the same. Films are the most efficient way I have found to teach a lot of people about important public health issues.

I stumbled upon this lesson while working on a film called ALL OF US. This was the first film project I had ever worked on. I had no idea what I was doing but I was very passionate about the topic - namely HIV prevention. The film followed me both as a physician and a medical anthropologist while I was researching HIV prevention in African American women's lives and taking care of patients in the South Bronx.  The film eventually premiered on Showtime Networks and was aired nationally for a two year period.

With its broadcast I learned first hand, that scholarship, backed by a good story is a formula for successful teaching. The film  has been distributed to an audience of over 8 million to date and continues to grow. This far outcompetes the circulation of any academic article I could of ever written - no matter how prestigious of a journal it was published in. So I have been producing films ever since.

Film works, especially if you are concerned with teaching as many people as possible about an important subject. That's why I decided to become involved in OBLIVION.

This particular narrative, OBLIVION, holds an important lesson for the Ethiopian nation and other countries that struggle with the ways in which old traditions face an ever changing present. Telling this story is important for teaching how new and old ways meet in the modern world. It is also an incredibly important story about how women bring about changes to the problems they face in their life. This particular lesson is applicable to any context and we have thought very carefully how to build on this idea once the film is out.

We have designed an educational curriculum alongside OBLIVION that we intend to use in outreach efforts in Ethiopia where a significant portion of the population is illiterate. Harnessing the power of visual media to teach in this particular setting cannot be overstated. That's why I am just as excited about the teaching that comes after the release of OBLIVION as I am about making it.

Thank you to all of you who have helped us get a little closer to this goal.

Mehret

Hello all,

Leelai and I are in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia casting for OBLIVION. We will be auditioning over 300 actors in the next two weeks. Its really exciting! Casting began yesterday and we have been really inspired by the talent.

That said, every chance we get we check our Kickstarter tally and wanted to say THANK YOU to all of you who have contributed. We have come so far and we are so thankful. We are close to $20,000 with one week left. So many of our friends and family have contributed and we are truly grateful. Film is such a collaborative medium and we would not be able to do this without your support so THANK YOU.

With 7 days left in the campaign and a little over $10,000 to raise we will need to push hard this final week to hit our $30,000 goal and with your help we will get there. If you have not sent the link (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1548609047/oblivion-0?ref=live) on to a friend please consider passing it along to a few this week.

In the meantime, we wanted to send you a video cheer (check below) from our casting location in Addis Ababa. Thank you so much for all your support.

Zee and Leelai

One of the joys of being a director/producer is working with so many talented people. This week, I directed a very cool promo for the CEO of a company called PopTent. I was on the producers team for a tv show in Detroit and I am on my way to Ethiopia to work on casting for OBLIVION. It's never boring and the challenges are great, but the rewards of meeting those challenges are even greater.

Zee and I have had a great working relationship throughout OBLIVION. I look forward to the casting process. I love working with actors. Having been an actor for many years, I can't wait to see these talented people coming in and auditioning for these amazing roles.  I also look forward to soak in the world of OBLIVION. It is one thing to imagine it from Los Angeles. It is another to actually be there to hear the sights, the sounds, the smells of the film.

Finally, all of this can't happen without you. We are still far away from our goal and it is your help that has gotten us this far. By spreading the word about our campaign and helping us to reach our kickstarter goal, you will make the world of OBLIVION come alive.