Get Involved!
From Labor Day 2008 to May Day 2009
There have already been hundreds of screenings of Made in L.A. and two extremely successful screenings tours featuring the filmmakers in Northern California and in New England. In addition to continued touring, we are embarking on a "Labor Day to May Day" campaign. The objective of this campaign is to encourage community organizations, faith based congregations, and grassroots and student groups to screen Made in L.A. and to use it to reach out to the community and bring diverse audiences together to watch and discuss the issues in the film. Check out our Host a Screening page for details, and, if you'd like to invite us to your event, contact us!
GET INVOLVED WITH THE FILM!
1. Join our e-mail list and join us on Facebook and Myspace to stay up-to-date on what's happening with the film. Encourage your friends and family to join, too.
2. Screen the film at home for your friends and family. We can assure you this will be a beautiful and moving experience! (Read other people's emotional reactions to the film).
3. Host a screening in your community, or encourage the right community organization, faith-based congregation, or grassroots group to host a screening. We have recently launched special screening kits that "pay for themselves" so that the ultimate cost for doing a screening is zero (the cost of shipping, actually). The screening kits, along with the information on our Host a Screening page, include everything you or your organization needs to do a successful high impact screening!
4. Encourage your professors, teachers and public libraries to get the educational version of Made in L.A. from our nonprofit educational distributor California Newsreel and to add the film to their collections and to their curricula. Help expand the impact of Made in L.A.!
5. Donate to our outreach campaign, or consider purchasing a DVD or poster to help support our continued outreach and educational work.
6. If you are part of an organization, become an outreach partner of Made in L.A., helping to spread the word about the film and use it to further your mission. To learn more visit our "outreach partners" page!
GET INVOLVED WITH THE ISSUES IN THE FILM!
There are many, many ways to get involved with the issues that are explored in Made in L.A., and we encourage you to explore our extensive Learn More page to find out about the multitude of organizations working on these issues and the many different ways that you can get involved. Here we aim to present a few simple steps that you can take:
1. Be a more conscious consumer and support sweat-free businesses.
➢ Shop with a concience. Join the consumer movement to buy goods made under fair labor conditions! Some anti-sweatshop organizations (including Sweatshop Watch, Sweatfree Communities and the International Labor Rights Forum) have compiled this shopping guide, representing a sampling of sweatshop-free apparel products currently available on the market (for a PDF downloadble flyer, click here). And don't miss the Sweatshop Hall of Fame, featuring apparel companies that have consistently flouted labor laws and basic worker protections.
➢ Get active in the sweatfree movement. You can bring the campaign to your community -make sure your business, religious group, school, city council, or state government commits to buying products made in fair labor conditions and holds companies accountable to improve conditions in sweatshops currently in their supply chains. Apparel companies will only change their sweatshop practices if we create a market for sweatfree products and services! Take action:
- Send a letter to your governor and mayor asking them to join the State and Local Government Sweatfree Consortium to ensure that your public tax dollars do not support sweatshop conditions.
- Learn how your community can help end sweatshops and contact SweatFree Communities to bring the campaign to your community.
- Endorse the campaign.
- Check out this list of anti-sweatshop groups and contact them to help make change!
- Of course, you can also use a screening of Made in L.A. to mobilize your community around a sweatfree campaign!
2. Educate yourself about immigration policy in the United States and take action.
➢ Educate yourself and don't let others tell you what to think. Explore the "myths vs. facts" of immigration and the many resources and links to organizations that we have gathered on our Learn More page relating to immigrants' rights and immigration policy in the United States.
➢ Participate actively in working towards a solution. (For specific organizations and initiatives where you can participate, visit our Learn More page to find the one that is right for you):
• Explore the various proposals for immigration reform and work for policy change.
• Join or support one of the many local and national groups working towards fair and just policy reform.
• Join marches for fair and just immigration reform.
• Volunteer at a local organization or worker center providing support for immigrant workers.
• Post your opinions and videos on-line and spread the word!
3. Get involved in community organizing and social justice efforts.
Whether joining an organization, participating in a current boycott, struggle, or social action, donating to a cause, or helping to spread the word, there are a myriad of things you can do to be part of the solution. We encourage you to contact local community and campus organizations to learn how you can get involved locally. For a list of some organizations in the US, as well as many other resources, please visit our Learn More page.
