Fans of Joss Whedon’s cult TV series Firefly are no strangers to fundraising. Back when Fox cancelled the show after airing only 11 of the 14 episodes (out of order, at that), Firefly fans bought over 200,000 Firefly DVD sets. That number impressed Universal Pictures enough that they greenlighted the movie version, Serenity, which Whedon had been tirelessly petitioning to get made. Since there will be no sequel to Serenity, which was released in 2005, the fans had to find some other geeky pursuit to throw their money at. The solution was Can’t Stop the Serenity, a yearly screening of Serenity whose proceeds benefit the charity Equality Now. This year’s global coordinator, the passionate and talented Beth Nelson, is an Austinite. That Other Paper’s Christine Acker recently sat down with her to talk about Can’t Stop the Serenity (and got a little bit of pining over Nathan Fillion in along the way).
That Other Paper Tell me about Can’t Stop the Serenity.
Beth Nelson Can’t Stop the Serenity started in 2006 as a way to celebrate Joss Whedon’s birthday and also to get the fandom dedicated to more charitable causes. It was created by the One True b!X. That’s his nickname. I think his real name is Christopher Franconis. Over 40 cities got involved the first year of Can’t Stop the Serenity and raised around $65,000. It was all last-minute; they didn’t have much time to get these events running. All proceeds benefit Equality Now, which works to end violence against women and girls, which is a lofty goal. [laughs] Jessica Neuwirth is the founder of Equality Now, and her teacher was Joss Whedon’s mother, who has been a feminist since childhood. She’d always teach her female students to be empowered women. From Jessica’s experience with Joss’s mom, she decided to take her soapbox passiveness and turn it into something more active and actually run a charity, which is how Equality Now was born. They get involved all over the world in causes like ending female genital mutilation and sex trafficking. In 2006 there were 17,000 girls trafficked for sex in the United States alone. They protest the violation of civil liberties against women and girls from all over the globe. In 2007, 47 cities got together and watched the Big Damn Movie and we made over $100,000 for Equality Now. This year our goal is to have 55 cities involved and make $150,000. Even if we don’t hit that, the way I look at it, as much money as we can make, Equality Now can use. They deserve it.
TOP How did you get involved in all of this?
BN In 2006, I found out about Can’t Stop the Serenity like other Austinites, but I was too busy to organize anything. That year, unfortunately, Austin only donated like $500 because there was no organizer. The Alamo Drafthouse took it upon themselves to do a screening and just collected some donations.
TOP Wow, that was really awesome of them.
BN Yeah. Down at the Drafthouse, they’re very big Joss and Buffy supporters, especially Henry. So in February 2007, there was hubbub at fireflyfans.net and Whedonesque about Can’t Stop the Serenity again. I was like, “Man, I really want to go to an event,” so I looked on the list of cities with events and Austin was there, but it wasn’t linked to anything, which meant that Can’t Stop the Serenity had heard from people who were interested in doing an event but no one had actually started organizing it yet. So I talked to Devin Pike, who was the 2007 organizer, and I asked him, “What’s going on with Austin?” He said, “The Drafthouse is interested in doing it again but they just don’t have an organizer. You have to do it!” I was like, “Okay…” So I contacted Henry with Alamo and we worked some things out and I started organizing. I ran that event pretty much myself. I had a graphic artist that did the header for the website and the logo for the Austin-specific event and a web designer who created the website. The graphic designer also created our program. Everything else I did pretty much myself.
TOP What all is involved in running the event?
BN Creating the actual event itself, so deciding what was going to happen at the event, which ended up being a Serenity screening with a Serenity feast, a Buffy sing-along, and a screening of the finales of Buffy and Angel. We had a costume contest and we raffled a bunch of goodies like autographed pictures. One person got entered into the global raffle where they got a chance to win a ticket to the Browncoat Cruise. Getting donations, monetary and SWAG, is the hardest and most time-consuming thing about running an event. I think Serenity has enough pull to get people in the door, especially in a town like this that’s very liberal and very artistic, but we need prizes and we need monetary donations for operating costs. I also ran eBay auctions. Other than that, it was online and on-foot marketing. We needed more volunteers than we had. I had this one really awesome volunteer. Her name was Kayley — L-E-Y instead of L-E-E. [laughs] I had my own Kaylee! She isn’t an awesome mechanic but she is an awesome student at UT. She did some online marketing and found printers for me.
TOP How much time does all of this take?
BN Back then I was putting three hours a day into it.
TOP Wow, that’s a pretty big time commitment.
BN It is a big time commitment, but it’s funny how fast the time goes. It’s like, you have to get on the forums, see what’s going on, keep up with everything, order t-shirts, get this program to the press, sit down and talk to the Alamo. We were trying really hard to get a Big Damn Hero, an actor, there too. Unfortunately we were unsuccessful. The biggest time drain is being on the phone and shooting emails.
TOP I saw this one blog post where someone met Nathan Fillion on the Congress Bridge and they talked for a long time. I would die. I really would.
BN I have had the fortune of being able to talk to Nathan. He sent a bunch of autographed photos down to our event. It was very generous. He sent a note along with them thanking me for what I was doing, and I was like, “No, thank you for being so awesome and pretty.” This was before he got involved in Kids Need to Read. They give books to schools and libraries.
TOP So you were the Austin coordinator in 2007. How did you become the global coordinator for 2008?
BN In mid-July 2007 they put out posts on the forums saying they were going to host interviews for the new global coordinator. You fill out all this information and this questionnaire, and they pick the one they think is most qualified to run something like Can’t Stop the Serenity. I have event planning experience and I’m extremely organized and a really good multi-tasker, so based on all these skills I had, they picked me to run the global effort. Either that, or no one else wanted the job. It was up to the One True b!X and Devin Pike to pick the person, and they picked me. So around August they told me they picked me.
TOP What all does organizing the global events entail?
BN You are the organization’s hub and you have to have connections in the ‘verse. All the organizers let me know how their events are going. I get global sponsorships, so basically one item from a vendor for every city involved. For instance, I go to someone like Quantum Mechanics, who is a lifetime sponsor. They are giving replica bank heist money packs from the movie to each city. And from June 19th to September 30th, if you put “CSTS” in the comments section when you order something, they’re giving 10% of that order before tax to Equality Now. So I get deals like that. This year we weren’t able to tackle major corporate sponsorships because of a number of other hiccups, but that’s something we’ll try to do next year. The global organizer advertises and does press for all the global event issues such as global sponsors and global press releases. I also do all the global T-shirt and poster ordering and get people to do the global designs. This year the global design is the Chinese text with the Equality Now and Serenity entwined logos at the center, which Adam Levermore-Rich designed for us again. I also am the point contact with Universal, so I deal with any issues we might have with them.
TOP Like copyright?
BN Yes. For example, when we make a design, I contact their legal department to make sure the design’s okay. I deal with their vice president of distribution for the 35mm prints and DVD licensing for 35mm-capable theaters that opt to to use DVD instead of print.
TOP How much more time does it take now that you’re the global coordinator?
BN Gosh. That’s not the only event I run, actually. I also run a non-profit called the Austin Browncoats and run the Browncoat Ball. These are my jobs. For fun, I write and manage the audio drama Buffy Between the Lines, do interviews for the podcast Joss’d, and help run the Joss Whedon Fan Club. I also write for the audio drama Angel Between the Lines.
TOP So these are how you support yourself?
BN No, everything I do right now is no cost, but this is what I do as a full time job. I just don’t make money doing it.
TOP You mentioned earlier the Austin Browncoats. What is that?
BN The Austin Browncoats is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, so we’re tax-exempt. We work to end violence and discrimination for all the Earth’s creations, but we focus on women and children, mostly about education. We believe that, properly educated, women and children can help make this world a better place. We support the women’s shelter SafePlace, the after-school program Heart House Austin, EmanciPET, Kids Need to Read, and of course Equality Now. So we put our time and effort into human rights and education.
TOP It’s obviously related to Firefly.
BN Yes, we started as a Firefly/Serenity/Joss fandom. We’d meet on the first Sunday of every month and watch an episode of Firefly at Spider House back when you could watch the DVDs at a public venue like that. We took that fervor we had for the show and decided to do something better with our time than just getting together and geeking about how much we love the show. We thought, why don’t we start running events that are just as geeky, but focus on making money for charity? So we host cool events like Can’t Stop the Serenity; the Browncoat Ball, which is a three-day feast based on the episode “Shindig;” Geekstravaganza, which is a big geeky trivia contest, costume contest, talent competition, and music expo that we did at Stubb’s and will do again in 2009; the Battle of Serenity Valley; Blazertag tournaments; and more. We try to tap into this demographic of 18- to 40-year-olds with disposable incomes who may want to donate to a charity but might not associate or relate to what I call the “Sally Struthers charities” because, even though those are good causes, they don’t want to put their time and money into them, especially now with the way the economy is going. It’s hard for people to come out of pocket for something they don’t get an instant gratification from. If they give to Equality Now, they’re not going to see a change in human civil liberties tomorrow. Their kids might not even see it. Maybe their grandkids will.
TOP Time for a burning question. What do you think happens with Mal and Inara?
BN Inara and Mal have been in love for forever and Inara decides to stay on Serenity, so I think that they banter and banter and banter, but I don’t believe that they get together in the way Joss envisioned the series. I think they try to, that they may have an ill-fated one-time tryst, and realize how poor of a match they are because relationships take so much more than love and lust. They take commitment and time, and Mal and Inara both are dedicated to other causes. They’d have to lose some of that dedication to be dedicated to each other. I don’t think Joss believes in happily ever afters. Just look at Buffy and Angel.
TOP Kaylee and Simon got together!
BN You don’t know that they live happily ever after. If River goes bonkers again, Simon’s gone. He’s not going to be like, “Hmm, my sister or Kaylee? Let me see.” Simon’s given up his whole life for his sister; he’d give up Kaylee, too. Look at Zoe and Wash. None of his couples have happily ever afters because that’s real life. I mean, how many people find that person that they love that much and stay with them? You don’t meet that many. Joss creates these crazy passionate characters, and when you have that much passion, all it can do is burn you up or fizzle out.
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