Understandable, but for this particular "based on true stories" why not? I would think that it would help the project and get the word out there.

I agree..... at this stage it does not appear to me that any attempt was made to get any support from the organization - but there are others who know more about the history of this project than i........

An attempt was made and it was denied or ignored depending on who's telling the story.

Update:


From the “If you Ask Me Column” in the Afro American Newspaper, July 1, 2006 – July 7, 2006 edition.

Soror Frankie Lou says that “I WENT TO NEW YORK on Friday, June 23 to the premier showing of the documentary “The Black Sorority Project – The Exodus. The History of Delta Sigma Theta.”

"Let me tell you as I sat in that jammed packed theater I was proud to be a member of Delta, an organization of over 200,000 college educated women founded in 1913.

The film emphasizes that Delta is a service oriented organization. It traces the history of the sorority from the time many of its 22 founders (including my mother Vashti Turley Murphy) were members of the AKA Club at Howard University, up through their fight for women’s suffrage, their campaign for a Black president of Howard University and for a dean of women at this mostly male bastion.

The historical facts are sound as a result of over a year of research by two producers – Derek Fordjour and Jamar White. These two young Black men are graduates of Morehouse and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity brothers. They also did a film on their Alpha fraternity.

The acting is good and the narrative is outstanding. Go see it for yourself. The film will be shown again in Philadelphia at the Bridge Cinema on July 27, the day the 48th annual convention of Delta Sigma Theta opens in Philly. For free tickets for the 9 p.m. show (the 8 p.m. screening is full) sign up at www. RSVP.blacksororityproject.com.)

P.S. This is a film our children need to see in order to better understand the struggles we women have gone through to make things better for them today.

ALSO While We – my friend Bobby Diggs and I – were in New York, we also saw that fantastic show The Color Purple as the guest of the Tony Award-winning star LaChanze. She is the wife of Derek Fordjour, the co-producer of the Delta documentary who invited us to New York in the first place.

Derek took us backstage after the show where we got a hug from LaChanze and she signed our program “With Love.” In all it was a mind boggling weekend."

interesting.... but not surprised at the positive review..........so has anyone seen or heard about the Alpha movie they did?

Right and that's what happens with many movies that are supposed to be based on true stories.

The people who the retelling is based on often opt out of endorsing the movie and even go so far as to voice their opposition to the movie. It doesn't stop the movie from happening but it usually just prevents the movie from being the OFFICIAL story of ____.

Yep

Soror you will find his explanation of the painting interesting. I am still not feeling the painting.

I read the meanings of the "symbolisms" and now I am totally not interested in the painting.

LOL!!! I just hope that we are not in part-two of this documentary. It seems that he is using ISOS as his roadmap for this documentary. Derek and Jamar should not have untaken this project without the necessary approvals from our Headquarters.

Wow, for some reason I am just now seeing that Frankie Lou's article was posted here. :eek: :mad: that is was posted.

Co-sign! I'm not feeling it AT ALL. :( :mad:

I finally looked at it ... Wish I hadn't. :(

Philly Inquirer story about movie showing around convention
 

I was actually looking for a story about convention when I ran across this. It does give more info than I've previously heard. I still don't agree with it. No sireee Bob.:mad:

Sorority film seeks to educate, not expose

By Elizabeth Wellington
Inquirer Staff Writer

With more than 200,000 members, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. is the largest sorority for black women in the world. Sorors are active well after graduation, and famous Deltas include educator and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune, actress Sheryl Lee Ralph, and singer Aretha Franklin.

Today, close to 16,000 Deltas will be in town for the sorority's 48th annual convention, which will feature workshops on leadership, economic development and political awareness.

Like all black fraternities and sororities, Delta Sigma Theta's social network extends beyond its membership to include the black middle class in nearly every American city. And like other Greek organizations, the group's inner workings tend to be shrouded in secrecy.

Which is why Black Sorority Project: The Exodus, a 45-minute documentary by New York filmmakers Derek Fordjour and Jamar White, is getting much buzz on Greek chat forums and through word of mouth.

There will be two showings tonight at The Bridge in University City, at 8 and 9:05, followed by a question-and-answer session. Close to 600 people are expected to attend; there are a few seats available on a first-come, first-serve basis. (For more information, go to www.blacksororityproject.com).

The film is largely an educational work and does not deal with controversial topics associated with black Greek organizations such as hazing and skin-color issues. Yet in spite of positive reviews posted on chat rooms after the film's premiere before more than 500 people - including some Deltas - in New York last month, the sorority says it does not support it.

In a note on its Web site (www.deltasigmatheta.org.), national president Louise A. Rice writes: "Please be advised that the executive board has taken action not to in any way endorse, support, sponsor, approve of, or (become) involved in this project or any project marketed under a slightly different name."

"The first thing I thought was hazing," said Dawn Jones, a national spokeswoman for the sorority who has not seen the movie. "And we do not approve of hazing."

But Jones added that the decision had more to do with the timing of the film than its content.

"It was just the fact that we didn't have any creative input in the movie," she said. "It just didn't fit into our time line, and this is something that the sorority would want to do in the future."

The film could easily be shown in classrooms to college-bound high school seniors interested in joining the sorority.

"There are no surprises," Fordjour said.

"We want it to be a tool possibly played during Black History Month or maybe on the Oxygen network as part of a discussion on women and civic education," White added.

Black Sorority Project: The Exodus is an adaptation of the first 60 pages of Paula Giddings' 1988 book, In Search of Sisterhood: Delta Sigma Theta and the Challenge of the Black Sorority Movement.

Delta Sigma Theta was founded at Howard University in 1913 by 22 members of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority (the first black sorority, founded at the university in 1908), who elected to leave it because of a shift in ideology.

The first Deltas were more interested in aligning themselves with the ideals of turn-of-the-20th-century social activists W.E.B. Dubois and Booker T. Washington than with the AKAs' social elitism.

"These women weren't interested in whose parents had the most money," White said. "They wanted to see social change."

The movie opens with a montage of black-and-white photos of college students, while the Howard University marching band plays a brassy version of "I'm So Glad." Fordjour and White depict a Howard University where black students of all skin tones - not just those with skin lighter than a brown paper bag - are focused on academics and progress.

Actress Tamara Tunie (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, As the World Turns) narrates. The 22 founding members are introduced through a rich oil painting by Fordjour.

Scholars Richard J. Reddick of Harvard University, A'Lelia Bundles (great-great-great-granddaughter of pioneering hair-care entrepreneur Madam C.J. Walker), and Beverly Guy-Sheftal of Spelman College provide historical context.

It all leads to the movie's climax: the sorority's participation in a woman's suffrage march in spring 1913.

"No one ever thinks about a black women's club [in connection] with women's suffrage," Fordjour said. "We wanted to tell the story of Delta Sigma Theta in the context of the women's history movement."

As active members of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., the first black fraternity, Fordjour and White, both 31, say they are sensitive to the secrecy in Greek life. They would never do an expose, they said; they were interested in writing about what they knew and using mixed media to advance the language of documentary filmmaking.

Fordjour has a fine-arts degree from Morehouse College, and White has a fine-arts degree from Pratt Institute in New York. The duo is known in Greek circles for An Experiment in Brotherhood, their 35-minute documentary about Alpha Phi Alpha. (Its annual convention in Washington begins today also.)

Their Derek & Jamar production company is in pre-production for Black Sorority Project: The Genesis, the story of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.:eek: :eek:

I guess this will be premiering in 2008, huh? :rolleyes:

What prompted the Exodus to be made before the Genesis? Is the Genesis supposed to be the "prequel" to the Exodus or does he plan to recreate facts for this cinematic work also?

Too much time on their hands...

I wish that people would be a little more respectful to people's organizations. It's okay to document struggles and hurdles that people have overcome, but for people to capitalize off of something as special as a sorority or fraternity, WITHOUT any proceeds going to those organizations, is deplorable. Mu aunt is a Delta and she is very upset about this movie. (probably more upset than when I pledged AKA) You never see the white fraternities or organizations like Skull and Bones allowing a sneak peak at their "struggles".

Why film the HWGLOs' stories? I mean, maybe they have good stories, I don't know, but even if they do - they have fewer members, and most of their members tend not to care a lot about their orgs too much after four years, so the profit potential is a lot less ... it's all about the $$$.

I think that the lure is the "controversy" associated with AKA and DST. Here it is, almost one hundred years later, and people still have their panties in a bunch about what did/did not, may/may not have happened.

NONE of us will truly know what happens until we make it to the "Upper Room" and are able to ask our illustrious founders for ourselves. Considering that MEMBERS of both orgs. may not have every single fact, I doubt that some outsider, regardless of how much reading and research that he may have done, can "enlighten" the masses on anything. His films can only be based on hearsay and conjecture.

I would consider viewing the films, just to see what the big deal is and to possibly get a good laugh. Whatever he presents can only be taken with a grain of salt. I'm sure interests will take it as law, but that's their business. AKA has its version of the split, just as DST has its version. Either way, it's cool because it is OUR truth. Our historians put in work to present the most accurate facts they could to us. As members of our respective orgs., we can take what is presented, as well as continue to research and learn more about our orgs. That's something that a film can't do for us. His goal is to entertain and turn a profit, not educate. If so, he would have tried to get support from our Corporate Offices.

For all I care, he can make movies about us every year until eternity. It just goes to show that our popularity is still going strong.

That's true. It's a shame how we (black sororities) and our story are being pimped and ripped off. Are they offering the Delta's any money for the use of their name and other sorority related info? That's not fair.

While I was at work, trying to stay awake, I was thinking about this article. Even though this has been bothering me for the past year (seeing that this thread started about a year ago and still going), this part of the story bothered me even more.

I don't want no unauthorized movie about Delta to be shown to no high school seniors/freshman girls who are thinking they are going to walk into Delta thinking they know everything because they saw the movie. It doesn't work that way. They got to do their research. I sure don't want to see it be put on Oxygen to be on after Monique's Fat Chance or Talk Sex with Dr. Sue. Yes, I would like to see something about our history done (and my interpertation of what the national spokeswoman said was that they were waiting on the 100th anniversary to do something), but I want on PBS and have it tastefully done like the Alphas (and with Nationals' blessing, of course).

I have another question about this, but since a lot of the sorors are still in Philly, I'll wait until the end of the week.

DST Movie
 

Hello Sorors,

Just wanted you to know that I just returned from Philly. I was in attendance for the Sorority Movie as was Soror Murphy (which she remained for a Q & A session after the movie...along with the directors). The movie was taken directly from ISOS but it mainly gave a visual and oral account of what Blacks went through during the time of the forming of DST. It showed all of the obstacles and how DST struggled and fought through. I think it was good because of this. Now the only thing I think they should have done (which I expressed to the director after the movie) was to show how Deltas are continuing to change the world today. He did however show pictures of Deltas that are making moves. It was nothing that mislead the true nature of our work. It only showed how our founders fought for the community and how we continue to do just that. There were a number of Sorors in attendance (wearing letters) and there were members of the National Staff scheduled to attend the later viewing. I went because I don't like anyone to make decisions for me...the only way I feel I can make a valuable comment is if I went to see it myself.

I missed the viewing in Philly due to a scheduling conflict. I saw some of the Sorors later on that evening after they left the movie and they enjoyed it. Perhaps I will get to see this movie some other time. :)

Thanks for sharing that thought. I hadn't run into anyone who had seen the picture. I would be very interested in the thoughts of those National Staff attending.

I'm wondering if they are going to portray AKA in a negative way. I saw the preview of their movie on their website and it seemed like the usual AKA bashing. I find it hard to believe that they are going to suddenly be fair and truthful when it comes to making our movie.

Sahara, I don't think they will portray AKA in a negative way, especially if they stick to the same principles they held for the DST project and deal with historical information and accounts.

Obviously, I'm a new poster on here, so HELLO TO ALL!!! I have read EVERY SINGLE last post on this topic! Don't think I'm lame, I work from 11:30 P.M. - 8:00 A.M. in the morning, so the internet helps keep me awake. Anyway, I am also an Alpha, so there should be no clarifications needed regarding the screen name (I saw the ProspeKt posts on another thread).

Live_Wire17, I applaud your attitude and wanting to see it for yourself, often times we hear things and "jump on the bandwagon" without doing research ourselves. We are all entitled to our opinion, but it was really discouraging seeing alot of the posts, not because my frat brothers were involved, but because information was readily available to clear up the misconceptions which led to negative posts.

For example, on their website about the project: http://www.blacksororityproject.com/faq.htm in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) they CLEARLY addressed many of the issues many felt negatively about. Now, I am no historian, although I purport and ASPIRE to be one day, but I always feel it best to do research and find out as much as I can on my own, so when people come and tell you things (like the unknown2u young lady), you know the truth for yourself, or at least you know YOUR TRUTH!

Peace,

MC
Theta Zeta Lambda Alumni Chapter via
Epsilon Eta Chapter, The "ICE" Chapter
4-7-2001, #2

With all due respect, you can't say this statement about the history. Just like I don't know the true history of Alpha Phi Alpha, you don't know the true history of Delta Sigma Theta. Therefore, the "historical information and accounts" may be inaccurate. JMHO.

check your pm.

:(. Why do you feel this way?

I know I am late on this.

To TheMan1906 you don't know both sides of the background of this, only what your frat put on his website. I was involved early on and trust we have very valid reasons for not endorsing the movie.

ETA: re: the last article. I can't find a Dawn Jones listed anywhere as a national spokesman for the sorority.

I always say that unless you are in ABC organization, you don't know the half of everything you think you know.

That may well be, but if Side A isn't effectively communicating critical items to Side B (or vice versa), the receiving side can only go by what they know and experienced. That isn't to say show all your business, but rather let them know where you stand and why.

OTOH, if Derek didn't express those valid reasons in his FAQ and they were indeed communicated to him, that's a whole 'nother story altogether.

What's that adage, there are always 3 sides to a story: Side A, Side B, and the truth.

RainMan,
Did I not address my post to a specific person? And it wasn't you.

Now this one is directed at you.

Hence the reason GC has the PM feature to prevent such responses as these.

*And I K.I.M.*

End post here.

I can agree with that.

Yes, I did receive that e-mail. I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks it sounds suspect

[QUOTE=RedefinedDiva;1290481]
NONE of us will truly know what happens until we make it to the "Upper Room" and are able to ask our illustrious founders for ourselves. Considering that MEMBERS of both orgs. may not have every single fact, I doubt that some outsider, regardless of how much reading and research that he may have done, can "enlighten" the masses on anything. His films can only be based on hearsay and conjecture. [QUOTE]


Please put THAT in strobe lights!! Why are we beating a dead horse! There is no way I'll support an outside source telling me about AKA!

I have heard a lot of conversation about this "documentary" and many members of the org. believe that the movie won't profit as well as many other movies. As a prospect it is my opinion that on sheer interest alone it will do well. If the film is released to mass audiences and promoted well those (mostly undergrads) who are at the point where they crave anything Delta because they want to be in the know (no matter what that is assumed to be) the film will bring about a nice profit. I know as a nonmember who has read In Search of Sisterhood-when I was an undergrad I wanted more. More information-more knowledge and if this film is promoted as a factual account of events (even if it's not) then the Delta Prospects will make it a a winner in cinema. what do you all think? Also the comment about Why Delta? Well as much as it may be out of line or a bit disrespectful to produce without the blessing of the org-it's good business. i believe someone touched on it a bit earlier-but Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. is a cash cow for this type of explotation. The largest sorority of the devinie nine...just reading the demogaphics of delta's members leaves one to know that the target audience for this film consist of well educated-paid-hungry for the arts type of women. Delta attracts the same type of woman it's already made of-so the well educated prospects-hungry for Delta-will go to the viewing.

Can we lock this thread?

Sure. :cool: