Hey, beloved backers,

It was a year ago tonight that we world premiered at the Toronto Independent Film Festival, where we received the Best Documentary award. Since then, we have:

- gotten into 9 more film festivals

- won more awards

- released a DVD that got national distribution in Whole Foods

- became a digital bestseller on iTunes and Amazon

- booked over 150 community screenings worldwide thanks to stellar local activists, and

- changed many, many lives

And there's no way in H-E-double hockey sticks we could've done it without your support. You gave us the funds and visibility we needed for a successful launch. Without a successful launch, where would we be? Nowhere, I tell ya!

Just recently we finished two pieces we promised, and we want you to know about them: we launched the Vegucated Challenge and the Vegucated Schoolhouse Online Community to support people who want to take next steps but just don't know how.

People who sign up for the Vegucated Challenge will receive free tips and tricks for adopting a more plant-based lifestyle. People can take one of two tracks: either go cold Tofurky and take the vegan plunge for a month--or--go vegan within a month, phasing out one animal food group every week until they're vegan by the end. 

The Vegucated Schoolhouse Online Community takes things a step further, helping people to connect and support each other with information and inspiration. 

With hundreds of members from all over the world, there are some great discussions being had, information exchanged, and connections made. The popular Member Map is an easy way to find veg-conscious people in your geographical location. 

Why are we launching this now? Isn't the film "done" by now? Nope! We believe that most of the people who will see the film haven't yet. Not only do we have a slew of screenings on the calendar, but we're also hoping for a wider release on Netflix, digitally and on DVD. Our distribution partners tell us we need about 500 ratings on Netflix before they even consider us.

Help Us Get on Netflix!

Sooo...we're asking Netflix DVD subscribers in the U.S. to please rate our film. Unfortunately, it doesn't show up for our international and Netflix streaming friends...yet. But spreading the word on Facebook and Twitter would be fab!

Thanks so much for your continued support and for a truly kickass year.

Your fans,

Marisa, Demetrius & Frank

Dear awesome people of 2012,

Happy New Year! You've helped our 2012 start with a bang. We launched the DVD and community screenings campaign, we've gotten into two new film festivals, and we're on "Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell" tonight on HLN at 7 pm!

We're On HLN Tonight at 7:00!

We're super excited to be featured on “Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell” tonight at 7:00 p.m. ET on the Headline News Network, and we hope you’ll tune in!

Marisa will be chatting with Ms. Velez-Mitchell, a veteran vegan of 15 years and the most energetic news show host on the air. We’re so grateful that Jane uses her public platform to raise awareness about healthy living, compassion for animals, and protecting the environment.

We Got Into Two More Great Festivals

We’re thrilled to have been officially selected for the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital. Founded in 1993, it is now one of the world’s largest environmental film festivals, with 150 films from 40 countries playing at last year’s festival. We hope DC-area folks will mark their calendars for our screening on Monday, March 19th at 7:30 p.m. More details to come soon!

The Artivist Film Festival is special because the humane treatment of animals is part of its larger mission, as is activism. We hope you'll come out and support us and enjoy an evening of animal films. Thursday, Jan. 26th at 6 pm in the Miller Theatre at Columbia University 2960 Broadway New York City Limited number of free tickets available --Reserve now!

More info here and FB invite here. Feel free to invite friends and spread the word! 

Community Screenings Campaign Launch = More Exciting Premieres!

If our fall tour passed you by, you might still be able to catch a premiere in your town. Through our community screenings campaign, 19 enterprising vegucators have started organizing premieres starting this week all over North America, from Tulsa, OK, to San Diego, CA to Vancouver, BC. Check out our Upcoming Screenings page to stay up-to-date on new screenings as we add them! And check out this page if you'd like to organize one yourself.

Look what we can do together -- it's vegolutionary!

Here's to a happy, healthy and harmonius 2012,

Marisa, Demetrius & Frank

Dear glorious backers,

Happy Christmasolstikwanzukkah! We've got super exciting news to share right as we hit the holidays. Your Kickstarter rewards have shipped! And now you can also watch the film by downloading or streaming digitally.

Your Rewards Have Shipped!

Check out our packing party Facebook album for more fun photos, including some showing how we became Those People at the post office, clogging up the line with our ridiculous shipments. But we happily put up with the glares because we love you.

Now on iTunes, Amazon Instant & More

We launched digitally! Our partners at FilmBuff helped us get onto some exciting digital platforms, including: iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Vudu, Xbox, and Playstation.

If you like the film, please feel free to rate and review it in the above portals to inspire others to give it a watch! And of course your tweets and FB post reviews are oh so appreciated. Thanks again for making it an amazing year for us.

Warm wishes for a happy, healthy holiday season,

Marisa, Demetrius, Frank & the Vegucated crew

Happy December! How is it already December? It's been a whirlwind of a fall, thanks to everyone who helped make our "Let's Get America Vegucated!" Tour such a success. But the big push is still to come, with our digital launch next Tuesday, Dec. 6th, pre-orders and Kickstarter rewards to fulfill by the holidays, our official DVD launch on January 9th, and our Community Screenings campaign launch in January as well. Keep reading for more details.

Twelve cities, nine states, two film festivals, and one very successful U.S. film tour. Thanks to everyone who joined us at a premiere or helped spread the word. Together, we vegucated around 2,000 people this fall. Thanks to local allies who helped promote, turnouts were great, but what really blew us away were all the emails, tweets and Facebook posts from people who declared they were going vegan, vegetarian or more veg from seeing the film.

Check out our tour highlights post and our Facebook albums for tour photos. You'll see lots of yummy food and drink donated by local sponsors and by tour sponsors So Delicious and Obsessive Confection Disorder.

Digital Launch on Tuesday, Dec. 6th

Ever since we started pre-screening the film this summer, we’ve been asked, “When can we watch it online? When is it gonna be on TV?” We have our answer for you:  next week!

We’re delighted to be partnering with FilmBuff, who’s helping us reach our audience through digital portals, on computers and on TV. No more waiting for the DVD to be released and come in the mail. No more waiting for the film to come to your town. Just click and watch.

Starting on 12/6 you’ll be able to find the film on Amazon Instant Watch, Vudu, CinemaNow, Playstation, XBox 360 and Zune Marketplace. Watch out for an email from us on Tuesday with direct links and, hopefully, some good news about iTunes.

DVDs Are Coming & We Need Your Info

We're busting our tuchuses (is that the plural of tuchus? Or is it the more Latin tuchi or tuchae?) to get DVDs and other rewards to you before the holidays. We're even flying producer Demetrius out to L.A. mid-month to fulfill orders right near the DVD replicator company to circumvent a week's worth of transport via truck. I'm afraid we don't have an exact ship date yet, but when we do, we'll let you know. We're estimating shipping around Dec 16th-20th. And we could use some volunteer elves to help with packing. If you're interested, please reply and let us know. We'll have some extra DVDs on hand for helpers to take home.

But we need your shipping info ASAP! Most but not all of you have answered the shipping survey we sent out on Nov. 1st or 2nd. If you haven't answered it, please dig it up in your inbox because we need your shipping address and, if applicable, your t-shirt size and color preference.

We also have community screening licenses available for pre-order in the e-store and are excited to launch this part of our release in January. We've already had around 200 people sign up to host screenings in colleges, libraries, community centers, living rooms, etc. If you've signed up, here's your chance to make it official and buy the license.

Thanks again for the memorable fall. Let's keep the momentum going through the New Year and keep getting America (and the world!) vegucated.

All our best,

Marisa, Demetrius & the Vegucated crew

Hi everyone,

We officially kicked off our "Let's Get America Vegucated!" Fall 2011 Tour in style last week in NYC. Thanks to everyone who came out to the event, which was a dream come true for our NYC-based cast and crew.

The audience at the beginning of our sold-out U.S. premiere in NYC. Photo courtesy of Jessica Mahady.

You owned that red carpet. Check out these photos by Jessica Mahady and these by Derek Goodwin. See yourself in any? Feel free to snag and tag, please! Thanks again to our volunteers, donors, and sponsors.

Film subjects Ellen, Brian and Tesla strutting their stuff. Photo courtesy of Jessica Mahady.

We got tremendous feedback from non-vegans who attended and were inspired to go vegan, vegetarian or more plant-based. So we're even more pumped to hit the road with the film.

We're delighted to be in Texas, where we're premiering TODAY in Dallas as part of the big Texas Veggie State Fair weekend, including a Kick-Off Party with Mercy for Animals. 

This coming week we're hitting Cali with premieres in Berkeley on Monday with special guests cookbook author/speaker Colleen Patrick-Goudreau and Kevin Connelly from the Earth Island Institute. Then we'll be in San Francisco on Tuesday with film subject Brian (and a schmancy rooftop party at VegNews headquarters), in Sacramento on Wednesday thanks to activist Linda Middlesworth, and LA on Thursday! 

We're particularly excited to be joined by TV icon Bob Barker for the LA premiere, so come on down to the party at the Landmark West LA Theater on 10/27 and celebrate with film subjects Brian and Tesla and other special guests, including emcee Rory Freedman, co-author of the bestselling Skinny Bitch series. 

We're just a couple of people here at Vegucated HQ producing the ever-growing "Let's Get America Vegucated!" Fall 2011 Tour, and we could use as much help as we can spreading the word about our stops, so please check out our tour page for links to Facebook invites. Please invite your friends in the cities where we'll be and help us gain momentum for this movement!

All best and thanks again,

Marisa & Demetrius

P.s. We're getting lots of questions about "when is my DVD coming?" and are loving your enthusiasm. As the FAQs on our Kickstarter has always said, we'll be sending those out before the holidays. Thanks for your patience!