January 15, 2010

Dear Speaking in Tongues supporters,

Happy New Year! and what a year we've had—thanks in large measure to your ideas, financial support, and general cheerleading.

After six years in production, Speaking in Tongues premiered to four sold out houses at the San Francisco International Film Festival and brought home the Audience Award.  It played at festivals from New Orleans to Kansas City to San Diego (Cleveland, Mumbai, and many others are in the works in 2010).  More importantly, the film made inroads in communities across the country.

To date:

•More than 500 educators are using the film to inspire students and parents, teach teachers, and promote multilingualism.

•More than 5,000 readers receive our newsletter.

•More than 17,000 viewers have seen the trailer (www.speakingintonguesfilm.info).

•More than 30,000 pages on our website have been used.

•Thousands have seen the film in theaters, public libraries, classrooms, and homes across the country.

“Speaking in Tongues has given us a springboard for our outreach program. It has strengthened our commitment to community education as a means of properly defending the existence of our Spanish immersion program.  It has lovingly reminded our teachers that they are not an island, that they are doing great and important work for both the English and Spanish speaking communities, and that other programs face the same challenges.”

—Sara Shorin, Tahoe Truckee Unified School District

“This is just what we need to overcome xenophobia in our culture.”

—Nicki Fillippi, Department of Homeland Security, Seattle, WA

“Now I understand why my parents sent me to India in high school to learn Punjabi.”

—Indian American college student

“A perfect way to introduce the complex psychological/political issues to my students, in a vivid and compelling way.”

—Susan A. Gelman Professor of Psychology, University of Michigan

 “My outer appearance suggests that I should be able to speak an Asian language when in reality, I speak English and German. I really appreciate that your film aimed to break this stereotype between appearance and linguistic ability.”

—Allison Fong Poon, Tides Center for Sustainability

“Speaking in Tongues shows that learning another language does not get in the way of learning English. In fact, knowing their native  tongue helps our students to learn other languages effectively.”

—Leroy Shingoitew, Hopi Tribal Chairman

“We used the film as the highlight of a community event. ... for the people in our group who may have been on the fence about language  immersion elementary schools, the movie gave them more reason to really commit to pushing for a language immersion school.”

—Alyysa Herrera-Set, Parent, Belmont Shores, CA

“Your brilliant film can inspire a nation and save the next generation of children!”

—James J. Lyons, Legislative & Policy Counsel

   Alliance for Multilingual, Multicultural Education

Now we've set our sites on building and launching a website geared to educators, parents, and advocates (with support from the Bay Area Media Coalition’s MediaMaker Award), piloting a multi-tiered community outreach strategy (with funding from the San Francisco Foundation), and making the most out of the opportunities created by our national PBS broadcast next fall.

If you haven't done so already, please consider staying in the loop of our progress by joining our e-mail list and Facebook group. And, if you have connections to organizations, individuals, or funders who might be able to help us move our project forward, please help us connect.

Our most critical needs are support to:

•Create a multilingual DVD.  (We have funding for a Chinese version, but are looking for support for a Spanish version.)

•Produce viewers’ guides in several languages, tailored to specific ethnic communities.

•Develop curriculum for classroom, teacher training, and parent education.

•Build the innovative multilingual community engagement web tool enabling users  to easily create targeted presentations or personal stories combining their content with footage from the film.

•Travel to key conferences to showcase these tools.

•Publicize the film, its multi-platform public television broadcast, and the activist toolkit.

 If the message of Speaking in Tongues is meaningful to you personally, you can also help by:

•Spreading the word about our resources to your network (you can forward our
downlable e-mail flyer).

•Programming the film at your events, writing about us in your newsletter, or linking to our website.

•Setting up a screening in your community (using our downloadable event hosting guide).

•Connecting us with funders and organizations who share our mission.

Feel free to contact us with your ideas too.  We're reachable: by phone at 415.203.5910 or 415.387.5912, or via e-mail at: marcia@patchworksfilms.net.

Best wishes for the new year (and decade).

Gratefully,

 
Marcia Jarmel & Ken Schneider, PatchWorks Films