Hello Everyone!!

Thank you all again for all your support so far-we appreciate every contribution we’ve received so far, from $1 to $1,000  to $5,000.  The kickstarter project ends today, May 6  at l:l7AM: but understand that hitting or not hitting the  $50,000   goal for kickstarter does NOT mean the project dies or ends. 

We’re now at @ $18,270+  of donations that have come in during this kickstarter project. That’s almost TWICE what we’d get from a traditional grant process.  However,  to make sure we still get your donation, we need you to transfer your donation to our fiscal agent for the project.

What happens now?

Remember your credit card will only be charged if we reach the target of $50K. Unless a surprise angel swoops in today with a $32,000 donation, we will not reach the goal, and your card will NOT be charged-which means no funds will go to Altantic Portals.  SO, please take a moment  transfer your pledge directly to the Center of Independent Documentary(CID) (the fiscal agent of the film) and you will still receive whatever reward you are signed up for.   Your  tax-deductible donation to kickstarter through amazon.com was going directly into CID anyway.  Now we are not part of the kickstarter we are  returning to our regular means of accepting donations, which is directly to CID. 

This kickstarter is only a PART of what we’re been doing over the years to fundraise for our project. What it has done is given us whole new level of visibility for Atlantic Portals and fundraising, using social online media and connected us directly to you, the donor. Now we can continue to roll out on this momentum through our normal direct donations through CID.

It will only take you a few moments, and is very easy to make your donation for Atlantic Portals(still tax-deductible)  to the Center for Independent Documentary, the 501c3 non-profit umbrella for Atlantic Portals.

 For secure online payment through paypal:

 go to http://documentaries.org/cid-films/atlantic-portals/

Or if you prefer snail mail, 

Make the check out to Center for Independent Documentary, with  Atlantic Portals in the memo line:

 the address is:

Susi Walsh, Director

Center for Independent Documentary

680 South Main St.

Sharon, MA 02067

Phone:  781-364-3627

Their tax exempt number is: 042-738-458

 What happens to my credit card information that I used to make my pledge to kickstarter through amazon.com?

The credit card information entered is stored in the users Amazon account. If you want to remove it, you have the ability to do so. In turn, you will not be charged unless the project is successful.

GOING FORWARD :

PLEASE   EMAIL  US DIRECTLY  @spiamedia@gmail.com so we can contact you post-kickstarter as well as getting additional contact information to send you your reward. 

.once we receive your donations at CID we will send you whatever kickstarter reward you were receiving. 

.we will continue to use the rewards we developed for kickstarter as we continue to fundraise through donations to Center for Independent Documentary(CID).  Those awards will be listed both on the CID page for Atlantic Portals: http://documentaries.org/cid-films/atlantic-portals/  as well as at  www.atlanticportals.com

UPDATES:

We will also keep you abreast of the progress of our post-production as we move forward through our  Atlantic Portals facebook page http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Atlantic-Portals/127286554010316.

LOOKING FORWARD:

A reminder of where Atlantic Portals,  WITH your support, and upon completion, is headed:  

  October 2011,  the  World Premiere at the CVIFF(Cape Verdean International Film Festival);  and this just in, the North American/USA Premiere  at the  MFA in Boston   in early December-- five years after the triumphant sold out premiere in 2006 of "Some Kind of Funny Porto Rican?"—followed by a  RI PBS broadcast on WSBE TV 36. 

This is pretty impressive for a little story with grassroots support and a big heart!

How to continue to support the project.

.Encouage people to donate.  This is the link that will take them to Center for Independent Documentary www.atlanticportals.com

. Contact me directly @ spiamedia@gmail.com if you would like to do a fundraiser in their communities. 

Thank you!!!!

Claire and the Atlantic Portals team

Thank you for an the anonymous $5,000 donation today! Also to the Michelle Reinstein, Bridgit Brown and Harold Taylor who also contributed and helped push us closer to our goal. 

A reminder of where Atlantic Portals is headed when it is completed.  World Premiere, October 2011 at the CVIFF(Cape Verdean International Film Festival),  and today word from the MFA in Boston as the venue for the North American premiere in early December,  following five years after the triumphant sold out premiere in 2006 of "Some Kind of Funny Porto Rican?"   Following the N. American premiere at the MFA we'll be headed to a  RI PBS broadcast on WSBE TV 36.  This is pretty impressive for a little story with grassroots support and a big heart!

YOUR SUPPORT AND CONTRIBUTIONS MEAN WE WILL MAKE IT to the finish line.  Spread the word as we come down the home stretch and let's see how far we can go!!

I'll be sending an update Thursday about status of the project and our next steps.  But until then, we keep on keepin' on!

Thank you!!

Hi Everyone,

 More wonderful Cape Verdean music is our new reward offering for our Atlantic Portals kickstarter!  The CD "Porton de Regresso " from the internationally renowned Mendes Brothers! 

 http://www.facebook.com/mendes.brothers

 YOU’LL RECEIVE THEIR CD FOR A MINIMUM DONATION OF $100.00 PLUS ALL OTHER REWARDS   LISTED  UNDER “ATLANTICO”  AND EARLIER SPECIAL AWARD, $15.00 OFF ENTRÉE AT ROSINHA’S RESTAURANT.

Can't tell you yet, but we have some great news headed our way about a pretty significant donation.  All I'll say right now is that it will get us over the l7K mark! Check back in later this week.  We'll also have more wonderful rewards.

We're coming down the home stretch here for our kickstarter and its been great! There are so many new avenues and connections this kickstarter is opening up, and its only the beginning!  Like to also take a moment to thank  Ron Locke,  Andrea Cabral, Joaquim Ramos, Hilary Hurd Anayso, Mark and Andrew Green, and Pete Chvany for their donations!

First of all, I wish everyone who celebrates the occasion a nice Easter and time with their families this weekend.  I want to share with you a feature on me/the project that came out this past Thursday.

http://www.baystatebanner.com/natl18-2011-04-21

We've got quite a sprint over the next l4 days to get to our target, and we're going to keep pushing up to the midnight hour.  We are learning how to do this as we do it, and again special thanks to all the folks who have worked to put this kickstarter project together, and a special shout out to Rafiah and Jamal(Emerson and Brown alum respectively)who are holding up the digital/web/fb end, and to Callie, for her moral support, encouragement and advice as the de facto kickstarter home team member and "mother protector."

As we focus on RUNNIGGG for the $$$, I wanted to step back for a second and remind myself, Why ARE we doing kickstarter?  To tell a story.  An important story.  Forty years ago something very bad happened.  A community vanished.  In the telling of the story of that community, SKFPR stumbled into one of the biggest tragedies of 20th century urban development- the displacement of three generations of Cape Verdeans: a thriving and unique community of the Africana Diaspora: totally destroyed in what is now recognized as a “flawed” model of urban renewal and gentrification.

 Today,  fifty years later, the last of the physical traces of that community in Fox Point are gone. The only record of the memory, voices, history and culture is in SKFPR.   In the telling of SKFPR is a powerful reminder of what can happen to a community caught unaware and under-prepared. It was a story that had to be told and has to be heard.

 You can’t find Cape Verdeans on the census.  We don’t “count.”  It is very hard for us to register on the radar of the wider population-we are an under-represented and under-served population in the telling of our story.  But to get our story told we must convince those making funding decisions that we exist, or our story is important enough!  It is this peculiar predicament that makes kickstarter count. You, the donor or friend and supporter of SKFPR and SPIA is deciding that this is a story that must be heard. Atlantic Portals finishes the story of the demise of the CV community 50 years ago, then relocates the community in the present, as it the descendants of the “old” Fox Point carve a space in the memory and community of the Fox Point of today. This is also the last chance for those of us who lived it to tell this story. Once we’re gone, that’s it.  And the ranks are thinning fast.   It took over ten years to scrape together the resources to finish SKFPR.  Its even harder and more competitive in these times to raise money for projects.   Reaching the Kickstarter goal for Atlantic Portals with your help means we can get it  made, this year-not  ten.

Easter was my mother's favorite time the year.  A gifted, talented, self-taught musician, with a beautiful alto voice, at this time of  year our house on 26 Planet St. in Fox Point would be full of the sounds of my mother playing the piano and singing Easter hymns.  She had given me a small locket once with a mustard seed in it, and said always  "remember, have the faith of the mustard seed."  I now understand what that means...have faith, stay the course, and like the mustard seed  dreams and hopes can lay dormant for a loooonnnng time, but still awaken and grow.  That is what SKFPR and Atlantic Portals and down the line Working the Boats represent, a journey of faith, hope and love. Thanks again for being part of the journey.

 Claire

THANK YOU Mary Canning!  We're at $9100, please increase your pledge, if you can...90 folks @$10 will get us to $10,000,  A great way to roll into the week!