SB CAN December 11, 2009 Information & Action Alert
Santa Barbara County Action Network
INFORMATION & ACTION ALERT
December 11, 2009
Greetings SB CAN members and friends! Please take a few moments to review our news. And feel free to forward to your friends and others who are interested in creating sustainable communities through sound planning that integrates housing, open space and transportation—our HOT principles.
News in brief:
1. Join Us for a Special Screening & Panel Discussion of INVICTUS, December 16
2. Welcome Advocacy Director, Joyce Howerton
3. Fall 2009 Newsletter – Read all about it on our website
4. Support SB CAN with a Generous Year-End Donation
5. The SB Independent Interviews “Invictus” Screenwriter
Now the Details:
1. Special Screening and Panel Discussion - Clint Eastwood’s INVICTUS
SBCANNES “Movie with a Message”
Film Series and Panel Discussion
Clint Eastwood's INVICTUS
Wednesday, December 16, 6:30 PM
Metro 4 Theater, 618 State Street, Santa Barbara
Presented by Santa Barbara County Action Network (SB CAN) in cooperation with
The Fund for Santa Barbara & The Santa Barbara Independent
SB CAN's "Movies With a Message" series continues with a special screening of the newly-released Clint Eastwood film "Invictus," starring Oscar-winners Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela and Matt Damon as captain of the South African Rugby team.
Geoff Green, Executive Director of The Fund for Santa Barbara, will moderate a discussion panel after the movie on issues concerning race, youth, and organized sports, based on topics raised in the film: "Newly elected President Mandela knows his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa’s underdog rugby team as they make an unlikely run to the 1995 World Cup Championship match."
Panelists include:
Debbie Brown - Executive Director, Santa Barbara School of Squash
Jeff Smith - Recreation Supervisor for Adult and Youth Sports, City of Santa Barbara Parks & Recreation Department
Professor Otis Madison - Lecturer on the History of Black Athletes in the US, UCSB Department of Black Studies
Sal Rodriguez - Former CEO of the United Boys & Girls Club of Santa Barbara County
Tickets are available at the box office atregular prices for adults ($9.25), seniors 60 years and older and children under 12 ($6.75) An additional $5 contribution at the door to SB CAN will be greatly appreciated and help us to continue our SB CANNES Film Series.
Parking and Location: Metro 4 Theater is located at 618 State Street, betweet Cota and Ortega. City parking is available directly behind the theater by entering on Anacapa Street. After 6 PM parking is free anywhere on the street.
Preferred reserved seating for family and friends is available with sponsorships, as listed below. To become a sponsor and reserve your seats, contact Deborah at deborah@sbcan.org, or 805-722-5094.
Sponsorship Levels
Movie Mogul- $500. Reserved seats for 8. Special recognition at the event / Listed as sponsor in the program
Super Star- $250. Reserved seats for 4. Special recognition at the event / Listed as sponsor in the program
Director- $100. Reserved seat for 2. Listed as sponsor in the program
Producer- $50. Reserved seat for 1. Listed as sponsor in the program
2. Welcome Advocacy & Outreach Director, Joyce Howerton
SB CAN is pleased to announce that Joyce Howerton has joined our staff as Director of Advocacy and Outreach. She will lead in community organizing around SB CAN’s HOT issues of housing, open space, and transportation.
When it comes to progressive leadership in northern Santa Barbara County, there is probably no one more well-known or well-loved than Joyce. For over forty years she has been fearless and passionate in her commitment to social justice, civil rights, and environmental causes, working on numerous local and national political campaigns.
Joyce is a founding member of SB CAN and served as North County Vice President for many years. Most recently she served as the Community Outreach Coordinator for the Fund for Santa Barbara offering technical assistance on effective use of the media, advocacy, lobbying, organizational development, fundraising strategies and building community networks. As a three-term mayor of Lompoc she secured pay equity for women, created a state-of-the-art regional landfill project, and developed the Lompoc Community Center, among many other accomplishments.
Joyce has served on numerous nonprofit boards and county commissions, including the North County Rape Crisis and Child Protection Center, which she founded in her garage in the 1970‘s. She was also a founding member of Domestic Violence Solutions and the North County Women’s Political Committee, and served on the Santa Barbara Foundation Board of Directors for nine years. Joyce was the co-founder and main spokesperson for the Coalition Against the County Split, which led the fight to defeat overwhelmingly a ballot measure in 2006 that would have permanently divided Santa Barbara county.
Joyce and Executive Director Deborah Brasket will work together to oversee all SB CAN activities and operations.
3. Fall 2009 Newsletter Available Online
If you haven’t received our Fall newsletter yet, it can be read online (pdf file) at:
Find out what’s “HOT Across the County,” who’s a member of our new “Founders Circle,” how Santa Maria is becoming more sustainable, and who turns 95 years young next March with a big birthday bash. All that and more in our 2009 Fall Newsletter.
4. Support SB CAN with Your Generous End-of-Year Donation!
As 2009 comes to a close, please consider making a generous gift to SB CAN.
SB CAN is the only organization working day by day throughout Santa Barbara County for sustainable planning and democratic governance. The planning we seek simultaneously fosters affordable housing so that people of all classes can live and work here, protects Santa Barbara’s environmental and agricultural resources, and encourages alternative transportation systems to reduce dependence on private cars.
Since SB CAN’s birth nearly eight years ago, we’ve worked to develop a strong progressive voice across the county, even in conservative strongholds in the northern part of our county.
And now, thanks to reorganization, your contribution will be fully tax-deductible.
Your generous support will make it possible to:
Develop progressive analysis, strategy and leadership on critical issues
Encourage dialogue and alliances among the County’s many highly focused, progressive environmental and social justice organizations
Inform and involve the public in the political process by fostering public forums and educational activities
Coordinate grassroots organizing and advocacy on the broad range of issues that make up the progressive agenda
Identify, encourage and support progressive leadership throughout the county.
But don’t take our word for it. Hear what our progressive county supervisors have to say about SB CAN:
“SB CAN provides critically needed progressive advocacy on a wide range of issues before the Board of Supervisors and can always be counted on to provide thoughtful analysis and insight on matters important to the people of Santa Barbara County.”
Salud Carbajal, First District Supervisor
“I am an SB CAN member. SB CAN is unique in its ability to bring together diverse individuals and groups to discuss and debate issues of importance to our community.”
Janet Wolf, Second District Supervisor
“I’m a member of SB CAN because the organization offers the community a healthy exchange of ideas on some of the most important issues that our County faces.”
Doreen Farr, Third District Supervisor
Please help us keep SB CAN strong and viable with a significant end-of-year tax-deductible contribution. You can make your donation online at www.SBCAN.org or http://www.sbcan.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=1
Or you can mail your contribution to: SB CAN, PO Box 23453, Santa Barbara, CA 93121.
P.S. Your tax deductible gift of $100, $250, $500, or whatever amount with which you are comfortable, is very important to us. In order to take advantage of a tax deduction in 2009, your contribution must be postmarked by December 31, 2009. Thank you in advance for your generous support.
5. Interview with INVICTUS Screenwriter Anthony Peckham
The Santa Barbara Independent's Matt Kettmann interviews INVICTUS screenwriter Anthony Peckham
South Africa’s Unifying Scrum
Invictus Screenwriter Anthony Peckham on His Homeland, Nelson Mandela, and Rugby
Saturday, December 5, 2009
By Matt Kettmann (Contact)
This weekend, audiences across America will begin applauding Invictus. The Clint Eastwood-directed film stars Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela on a quest to rally post-apartheid South Africans around the Springboks, the national rugby team so many had grown to see as the symbol of racial privilege. To do so, Mandela employs the aid of team star Francois Pienaar (played by Matt Damon), who must convince his teammates that they represent black South Africans as well as whites and then show his countrymen the same as they fight to win the 1995 World Cup. It’s perhaps one of the more uplifting moments in both sports and geopolitical history, and critics already are hailing it as one of the most important films ever made about South Africa.
Integral to its creation was screenwriter Anthony Peckham, who was born and raised in South Africa but now lives near Morro Bay because he’s “sort of a country bumpkin at heart.” Self-described with a laugh as a “25-year overnight success,” Peckham is riding a rather impressive wave of accomplishments right now, as he also helped pen the forthcoming Sherlock Holmes film and recently was hired to work on Deep Sea Cowboys. But he had a few spare minutes to chat with The Independent about Invictus, which will be screened on December 16 as part of the S.B. County Action Network’s S.B. Cannes series and followed by a panel discussion about the importance of youth sports in underserved communities.
How did you get involved with the film? A producer I’ve worked with before, Mace Neufeld, brought me John Carlin’s book proposal. John Carlin wrote the book about this event and I loved it immediately, at least because I was born in and grew up in South Africa. I left long before this event, but it touched me immediately. So we took it to Morgan Freeman, who basically is the only American actor who can play Mandela of that vintage. We didn’t know that they had seen the proposal and were looking for ways to get into it. It was a very happy circumstance. I told them my angle into the story and they paid me to write it. This makes it sound simpler than it was, but they gave my second draft to Clint Eastwood, because Morgan had been trying to get Clint to direct him in a movie, and Clint said yes. Once Clint Eastwood says yes, then all doors open before you.
When did you leave South Africa? Long ago, in 1981. I left in the darkest days of apartheid and basically because of apartheid. I didn’t know who Nelson Mandela was because he was a banned person back then. No image of him could be published and you could even be arrested for talking about him. It was a really draconian police state. All we knew was what the government told us, that he was the devil. I had to start learning about him once I left South Africa. I was 22.
READ THE REST AT:
http://www.independent.com/news/2009/dec/05/south-africas-unifying-scrum/
Date:
11 Dec 2009 - 1:00pm