February 7th Casting Call in Philadelphia: Can You Make It?

[aang_aint_white]

A second casting call for The Last Airbender will be held on February 7th in Philadelphia, from 10AM to 4PM at the Independence Hall Visitor Center. If you're a supporter in that area and wish to peacefully protest Paramount Pictures' whitewashing of "The Last Airbender," this post contains all the information we have

Comments

[djinnj]

Hey, I'm home from Independence Hall. Like aiorikasa says, there weren't a lot of us there. Perhaps 10 total, with some who had to leave early and one who turned up a bit late and helped the rest of us power through the last bit. It was a long, tiring day, but I enjoyed it. A lot of good people, interested in hearing what we had to say, and only a few jerks, and even then they were more the kind who like arguing foolishly, and not the kind who like harassing people or making ad hominem attacks. Quite a few now or retired professors who wanted to know what was up, which was sort of entertaining.

The security personnel were nice, and the police were lovely, and I know 2 people turned away and didn't go in to the casting call after we talked to them. Handed out all of our small flyers and about 1/3 of the larger ones. The small two sided flyers were the best.

mrmoonpants and I got there about 9:45am, and were getting settled by around 10:15, and the woman with the video camera showed around then.

My favorite moment was when a kid, maybe 13 or 14? Came up and asked what was going on and took a flyer and wanted to hear the spiel, and the adults he was with came over to listen also. I liked him, he was engaged and thoughtful and really helps me keep my faith in humanity!

There was a guy working for the casting director (I shall call him the casting PA) wandering around with a video camera, a bit of dueling video cameras at one point. I didn't talk to him much so someone else will have to fill in on what he said (unofficially, of course), but he was friendly and when we were leaving, he came by with his camera again and asked how it went for us, and how glad he was that 1) we were able to speak our piece and 2) that it went so well without getting ugly, and he meant it in the nicest way, but I thought that was kind of amusing. I don't think any of us have it in us to be rude, let alone disruptive! :P

I got a lot of the same question over and over, which was "what do you want me to do?" or "what should I do". It helps to have something to say to that, because not everyone is hard to convince, or apathetic. I ended up mentioning the letter writing campaign but also since that's somewhat derailed, that people should talk about it, spread the information, be aware, and not support the project. If anyone has something more proactive to suggest should we have the chance to do this again, I'm all for it, however.

Oh, and a woman from the Asian Arts Initiative came by and gave me a flyer and said if we do this again to contact them to perhaps coordinate some more interest.

While 10 people, with 5-9 people present at a time doesn't sound like a lot, we did make our presence very known and we were very visible. It would have been nice to have more people make it, but we got people thinking which was the important thing.

♥ to everyone who made it out, you guys are the best.

[drmoonpants]

Oh, awesome, glad you did the big report! ♥ Thank yooou~

I also just want to note, in general, that everybody there was awesome and did an amazing job, and djinnj in particular is a total superhero and an inspiration to watch -- just really doing an incredible job of flagging people down, making our presence known, and arguing the issue perfectly. As I remarked during today, if we had ten of her, I think the problem would be solved already. XD

Also, thanks a million to the people who respectively offered us fliers for printing and handing out and who offered to spot us the Kinko's order! They looked gorgeous and were absolutely incredibly valuable. A huge number of them got handed out, and I think they really made an amazing difference. I'm so grateful for the help.

So thrilled I was able to go today and help out in my small, largely bureaucratic ways, and I really hope more people will consider turning up in the future -- it was honestly an amazing experience.

[aiorikasa]

yeah you were the best girl x3 You certainly got our message across to people.
too bad that I had to leave early, my mom had some tea party or something to go to xD

[tryxkittie]

great effort! I'm glad you got a lot of positive responses!

[djinnj]

Out of curiousity, how many people do you think showed up for the actually casting call? 100? 150? Thanks!

[madbonkers]

Glad to hear things turned out pretty well (not so much on those who didn't turn UP, but..).

It's great that the Asian Arts Initiative approached you guys. Centres like this tend to have contacts in and out of the state. It'd be useful (and probably quicker) to get word around that way ^^

Excellent Work!

[sapphire_fuego]

Thank you for the report. I am glad that all the flyers were passed out because they can move around and spread the word like crazy in the right hands!

Thanks again for all your hard work and determination. You protesters should know that for those of us who live to far away... your voices spoke for us all, and I am extremely grateful.

:)