Update and Big News

Dear community,

Thank you for bearing with us over the past year. I am sorry to not have reached out sooner to keep you all abreast of what we've been up to. I was prompted to send this email by a subscriber who feels understandably frustrated to not know what their funds are, well, funding. It is a failure on my part to not have reached out before this, and I hope you will all forgive me.

Your funds are still funding the documentary series. For the past nine months, Robert has been working diligently on our first feature-length documentary about the anti-mining community we spent time with in Colombia. This has been a colossal amount of work—not only has he learned how to be a filmmaker, and how to use all the requisite software it demands, but has done it with footage in a language he doesn't speak. I am amazed at what he has successfully put together, and the quality of his hard work is evidenced in the fact that we have just received word that an international distributor wants to share the film with their global audience.

As promised, we are not selling the film. Planet: Coordinate members will still have access to a preview, and we will be able to put it out on Youtube at the same time it is available to be streamed on the distribution platform. We are not asking for any money, but any revenue that does come our way we have already promised to our friends in Colombia who have been hit with recent funding cuts and yet more lawsuits. That we have an opportunity to raise some money, and spread their message to three million monthly viewers who are deeply invested in these kinds of stories, is very important to us at this stage. These films were always meant to be about what kind of change we could inspire.

It does mean, however, that we will be releasing it a few months later than we expected. We had planned to get it out to you all just as we would be taking parental leave, but we are now looking at a September release date. I understand that means a significant chunk of time will have passed between the release of our first film and our second, and certainly far too long without an update on our part. Again, I apologise. I only hope this helps settle any concerns about what your funds have been funding over the past year—lots and lots and lots of work, I promise.

We have footage for one more full documentary after this one is released, and plan on also releasing some short films on some of the other communities we spent time with. Admittedly, I cannot give you a timeline as to when you can expect these now that we are expecting a child, but I promise you all they will be done, one way or another. Robert was working on the film while I was working on my manuscript. Now that is finalised, I plan on assisting him with the editing in the future which should speed things up.

Thank you all for your patience, understanding and support. We are enormously grateful to each and every one of you. It is thanks to you that we got this project off the ground, and thanks to you we have maintained it. We have every intention of continuing with it long into the future, and look forward to growing this community throughout that time.

With kindness,
Rachel