Rob here,

So it's been awhile since I've posted so I figured I'd write an update. So much has happened in the last two months and we are all excited with the film's progress. We are proud to announce that we won "Best Documentary Feature" at the Stella Artois Cinema STL Filmmakers Showcase, due largely to the enthusiasm of the fans that attended our sold out festival WIP(Work in Progress) debut.

The production of Give a Damn? over the last four years has been a roller coaster of accomplishment and disappointment which has tested our resolve on multiple occasions to complete the film that we set out to make.  There was a period of 3-4 months that I completely withdrew from the project due to frustration and the financial opportunity cost that were a byproduct of chasing our dream.  After watching the film with 440 people and receiving a standing ovation, I was overcome by a feeling of much needed closure and excitement. For the first time in many years I felt that sacrifice and struggle were finally overshadowed by success of the film. Dan and I were in attendance for this showing, however David was unable to attend because he was in Malawi working on his non-profit  "When The Saints".

Although Dan and I very much enjoyed the screening, it did not feel complete with David not in attendance.  Soon after the Tivoli screening, David returned to the country and now it is amazing to have had the full team present for the most recent screenings of the film.  Although we are all very different, we are starting to merge very well as a presentation team and the Q and A section of the film has been very strong because of that.

After years of begging the public to take notice, people are starting to pay attention and interest in the film seems to be exploding.  Although the film has not had it's official red carpet premiere, we are currently touring the WIP cut around the STL area at college and high school campus's.  The first two screenings at Washington University and Florissant Valley Community College were very well received and we are excited for the handful of dates that we have lined up in the next month or so. 

The other big news that I have is that we were excepted into Heartland International Film Festival as well as the St. Louis International Film Festival, taking place in October and November respectively.  Both are major film festivals (St. Louis is an Oscar qualifier) and needless to say we are extremely excited to be a part of these festivals.

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I will jump right into whats going on! Since the last update, we have put most of our focus into making our Advanced Screening on Aug 14th, 2:30pm at the Tivoli (considered by many the best independent theater in Saint Louis) a success!

Thus far we have over 200 people committed on facebook and have been all over the local news. Today I was live on Ch.2, yesterday Rob and I were on Ch.5, and yesterday we also had a fabulous article in the local paper. This Thursday we will be on Ktrs 550AM with McGraw Milhaven at 9am and then on Friday we will be on the local NPR news station around 11am. Follow our twitter if you want to know the exact details when we find out more!! Thinking we might come close to selling out the 400 seats:)

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There is a story in the Bible about a blind man that Jesus comes across and his
disciples ask why was the guy like that? Was it because of his own sin or the sin of his parents?

Sometimes people ask me similar questions. So do you think the film didn't go as planned because you didn't make it explicitly about God? Some people may think its my fault or other people on the teams fault that we didn't raise the money we originally planned to raise, got in the crash, or have not gotten into any major festivals. We always wonder when someone doesn't succeed whose to blame, just like the disciples did. Jesus response to the disciples question about the blind man always blows me away:

"This happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life." - Jesus

Jesus cut through all the blame and focused on the moment and said, "He is like this because of this one moment in history and how his healing, him coming out of this struggle, will lead to my glory."

I'm convinced that Give A Damn?'s destiny was to not be a story of pure success, where everything seemed to go our way. The way we were to glorify God was through overcoming the struggle...

So here how the things have gone: We had a sharp business plan, cool website and fun videos hoping that an investor would jump on board and fund our trip. No go. Then we decided to grassroots fundraise, and after 36 fundraisers and nearly a year, we just barely had enough money to do the trip. By that time I am burnt out on everything and the first month of the journey is a chance to decompress from the last few years and have a tangible practical goal to accomplish.

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We have done more than a dozen test screenings with some awesome results. I have attached a picture from one of our screenings. If you would like to be apart of our next screening or organize one yourself, just shoot us an email. The picture we attached were some friends who contacted us and took the initiative to get some folks together. On Feb 27th, we will have one of our largest test screenings at a coffee house out in Pacific, MO at 6pm. Let us know if you are interested!

So after three months in the competition, thousands of votes from you and all our friends, we are officially out of the Pepsi Refresh Competition:( At the bottom of our hearts, we want to thank all you who stuck by us these past few months and put up with our repetitive messages. Our supporters are incredible, everywhere I went people were letting me know that they were voting for us daily. It was so encouraging to see everyone's support. Honestly, thank you!!!!

The focus right now is to finish this film. It is close to done and we have been doing a number of test screenings in St. Louis and getting excellent feedback and encouragement, but have also seen that we still have a little ways to go.

As far as Sundance, we submitted the film by Sept 25th deadline and we don't hear back if we are accepted into the competition or not until early December . Many of the festivals require that you premiere your film at their festival, so it will be a while before we do a public premiere with red carpets and all, but we do hope to do one of those someday. First, we are going to be entering the film into a number of the major festivals. It will be long process but sure to be a rewarding one and hopefully a way to secure some form of distribution.

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We're about halfway through  the month. We are stuck around 34th for last few days, so we need a little boost! I made this video to remind you of your power to make a difference in this world.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyEXp7WxboA

We are getting some more media attention. We were in the Post on Saturday.(http://bit.ly/bAJEjr

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Its been a long time coming, but we finally have an updated trailer for our film. The thing is, if you want to see it, please vote for us to win $50,000 through the Pepsi Refresh Project here:  http://pep.si/bPy7mt . You'll see the trailer on our page.

WE NEED YOU TO VOTE ONCE EVERY DAY! WE NEED TO GET IN THE TOP TEN SOON B/C THOSE WHO START IN THE LEAD IN THIS COMPETITION USUALLY STAY IN THE LEAD. We have already went from 320th to 84th in the competition in just a matter of hours, please help us continue!

This money will go to finishing the film and having the funds we need to get it seen! I have been working full-time for the last 3 months ever since recovering from surgery (which was the result of the plane crash exactly one year ago today.) With David's help this past month, we have gotten our 150 hours down to a 5 hour rough cut. The movie should be incredible and have a huge impact on the world. SO PLEASE VOTE!!!!!!

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