Welcome to the Crowdsourcing Mornings segment! Every weekday morning, Geek Alabama talks about and features one crowdsourcing project from crowdsourcing sites such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and others. The hope with Crowdsourcing Mornings is to feature and help a project be successful and reach its fundraising goal. Please enjoy today’s featured project!
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YOUR MISSION: Pledge to help Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning filmmaker and activist Josh Fox finish the film “Rebekah Jones: Whistleblower.” Rebekah fought back for the truth against Ron DeSantis during COVID-19. This film is about her struggle, as a woman, as a scientist, as a truth-teller. It is also about the insane repression and authoritarian tactics of Ron Desantis.
I believe that the film could create a huge impact, just as all my other films have. It is a necessary examination of the truth and who we believe it from. This story must be heard as we fight against fascism for our democracy. Are you in?
“Viruses are natural, pandemics are man-made” Rebekah Jones tells me. “There shouldn’t be any political messaging for a virus. You need scientists running the show.”
Her voice is the unmistakable truth. A voice that needs to be heard. She’s strong, vulnerable, sassy, brilliant, clearheaded and outspoken. But she and I both know that maybe her most valuable characteristic is that she is and always has been, trouble. The sheriff in the small Mississippi town where she grew up nicknamed her that, “Aw Trouble, is that you again!”
I always want to be around people who are big, big trouble. And who know that you have to be tough as nails to endure what that trouble brings. Those are the people who change the world. They save lives, they fight for justice, they speak out when others are silent, they stick their necks out and they ride the storm that the world hurls at them time and time again. I always want to be in the center of that maelstrom.
That’s why I have always valued my friendship with Rebekah, since I met her over ten years ago. I get her. Albert Maysles once told me “The whole process is a friendship, you get to know and then everyone gets to know.” That’s the most valuable advice I have ever had as a documentarian. Become friends with trouble, with the controversy, with the drama of life, with the spark that catches the ethos on fire, with the truth.
Rebekah refused to manipulate the data. Refusals are powerful.
When you refuse power, when you throw truth it its face, it will try to crush you with everything it has got. I understand this deep in my bones. I was public enemy number one for the oil and gas industry for a decade. They threw everything they could at me. Smear, misinformation, death threats, lies, labeling me a terrorist, a communist, a liar. I was the victim of arson, of ostracizing, of surveillance, physical intimidation, PSYOPS campaigns, arrest, stalking, of public and private attacks on a daily basis. Rebekah has faced all of that and worse, sexism, misogyny, threats of rape and degradation, spurious and unsubstantiated smear campaigns that label her a whore, a porn star, a cyberstalker, a psycho.
The smear and misinformation machine that continues to take aim at Rebekah is not only the most nefarious force in our country, in our democracy, but it is also the man-made element of the covid pandemic. Viral misinformation has become viral misinformation.
There is only one way out of the culture wars that the likes of Desantis have brought us- science and truth. But huge numbers of people, who have been steeped in misinformation and smears for years may stop us from regaining our sanity as a society. The misinformation has become the disease.
As we follow Rebekah in her fight to clear her name, she is fighting for much more- for science, for women, for women scientists, for children, for health, for democracy.
Rebekah’s refusal put her in the spotlight and she hasn’t stopped outshining it.
She has the character for it. She has the toughness and the charm, the bluntness and the charisma, the brains and the beauty, the sass and the stillness.
Do you believe her?
She’s human and real and flawed and vulnerable and unafraid. She’s determined. Every time I mention her to someone their face lights up- “WOW, she’s amazing! They say.” She makes people feel like there is someone fighting for them.
I think she is a true American hero, whether you believe everything she says or not. And this world needs heroes who will fight fascists, no matter how flawed they are. And it needs films about what happens to the people who speak out and won’t ever stop.
Let’s go make some trouble.
As of July 13th, this project has raised $8,200 of their $60,000 goal. This project has 21 days left to raise the $60,000 or it will not be funded. For a pledge of $10, you will get one digital photo. For a pledge of $50, you will get behind the scenes access. To learn more and to pledge money, go to: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/joshfox/rebekah-jones-whistleblower?
