Body-war-logo-tall“Body of War”
Movie Watching Parties
Tips and Instructions

  1. Materials and Resources
  2. Organizing your Movie Party
  3. The Big Event: At your movie party
  4. Taking Actions at event
  5. Follow-up
  6. Actions after the party

 

Materials and Resources

Next Step: Organizing Your Movie Party

Organizing Your Movie Party

    1. Secure a Time and Location to Watch the Film: Some movie parties will be small house gatherings with a few people gathered around a TV, other events will be larger gatherings in community theaters. Think through how many people you would like to have at your event, and secure a time and location that works. You can use our online tool to list your event to promote and to get friends to RSVP.
    2. Order the film:
      Order The Body of War DVD: Docurama.com or Amazon.com (it’s also available onNetflix)
    3. Plan:

      Reflect on the goals of the gathering (our team’s goals for the events are educating about the impact of violence globally, educating about the effectiveness of peacebuilding and prevention and intervention programs, and raising support for our three key budget issues). Consider if there are any other goals you or your organization would add to complement the above goals.Build a team to help you organize–if you can provide others with a chance to share the organizing responsibility it will both strengthen the event as well as provide a learning opportunity for other organizers. If you have a team, decide who will be responsible for what parts of organizing the event: promotion, invitations, printing or finding materials to hand out, handing out postcards and taking part in the twitter action.Identify Your Member of Congress and Senators to Engage for the issues: Identify your one Member of Congress and Senate that you will be engaging through this action. You can look up your local elected officials here. Bring their phone numbers and address to share with attendees at your party. If you are in a larger metropolitan area with multiple Members of Congress, bring a list of other potential Reps.
  1. Invite:Invite friends and family, and people in like-minded organizations to join the event. Emails are a good first step, but one-on-one phone or in-person invites make a huge difference.

Next Step: The Big Event; At Your Movie Party

The Big Event: At Your Movie Party

  • Thank people for attending and taking the time to see an important film and to learn about some important peacebuilding issues.
  • Ask people to sign-in to the event: Use our sign-in forms to join The Peace Alliance mailing list and receive more information about opportunities to take action for peacebuilding issues
  • Explain the Issues: Download the overview of the International Peacebuilding Issues (under Materials and Resources)and use it to explain the three key issue areas, why they are important, and how they connect to the film (we would have far less war if we were smarter about how we invested in real solutions).
  • Take a photo of the group: Please send them to us so we can show folks around the country who are participating. Send it to us here.
  • Watch the film: Note that the film is 1 hours and 30 minutes.
  • After the film ends, ask people to reflect on it together: How did the film impact them? What can be done to make an impact to help end war?

Next Step: Take Action

Take Action

  1. Postcards: Re-introduce the issues, and ask attendees to sign post-cards to send to their US House Representative and Senators in support of the legislation.  Download postcard here.
    • Follow-up phone calls to electeds are also highly useful. Would you and a team be willing to go visit your Member of Congress local office?
  2. Ask for Donations:  If appropriate, ask that if anyone feels moved to make a contribution to The Peace Alliance to carry on our work, that they fill out a donation form and donate. Feel free to use a portion of the donations to cover the cost of stamps to send in the postcards, and then send the rest of the donations to:The Peace Alliance
    PO Box 27601
    Washington DC 20038.
  3. Ask people to stay involved:

    If people would like to stay involved, ask if they are interested in:
  • Arranging a follow-up meeting
  • Meeting with your Member of Congress’ district office
  • Forming a local team to get active
  • And other efforts to support peacebuilding in your community

Next Step: Follow Up

Event Follow-up!

  1. Postmark and send-in postcards signed at the event to your Member of Congress
  2. Send the Peace Alliance a physical copy of the sign-in forms, as well as donations gathered at the event.  Our address is PO Box 27601, Washington DC 20038.  You can also send us a scanned copy of the sign-in form to info@http://thepeacealliance.org
  3. Let us know how your event went & send photos:  We’d love to hear any feedback you have about what people thought of the event, what people learned.  You can send us feedback at info@http://thepeacealliance.org

Take Action after the gathering

Host Another Meeting Or Screening Party:  Do attendees want to meet again to plan more activities, or to show the film to more of their friends?  Plan another screening to introduce more people to the campaign.

Build Coalitions with Peace supporters in Your Community:  Meet those in your community working to prevent youth violence and intervene.  Not sure who is doing the work?  Google youth violence prevention and intervention in your community, and begin reaching out to people, setting up times to meet.

Host a Fundraiser:  Expand the scope of The Peace Alliance’s peacebuilding advocacy by bringing people together for a House Party fundraiser.

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