My name is Emma Mankey Hidem and I am a documentary producer/director based in New York, currently trying to get a documentary about Messianic Judaism off the ground. You can read more about the film and myself at the website, http://yeshuafilm.com. Even though the film is in the earliest stages of pre-production, I am reaching out to the Messianic community to try to spread the word early on for a couple of reasons:

1. I would like to get to know people and their stories – not only am I looking for people willing to go on camera and tell their stories but even if you are not willing to go on camera, I am just trying to get a feel for the incredible diversity of people within the Messianic movement.  I would love to hear from each and every one of you. You can email me at emma@yeshuafilm.com

2. You guys are my best resource for finding out about different Messianic resources and organizations that I might not know about yet. While I have managed to form a fairly extensive list of resources thanks to the people I already know in the movement and over the internet, please feel free to send any resources my way that you think I might not already know about.

3. (and my apologies for bringing this up but I don’t really have a choice) I’m trying to raise money via micro-financing. I am fiscally sponsored by the 501©3 non-profit Women Make Movies and I would be incredibly grateful to anyone willing to make a donation to the film. You can do so through their website (my film is the one that will appear at the very top of the page if you click that link). While I hate to solicit strangers over the internet, there are many reasons I’m reaching out to the Messianic community for money first. One is that you guys have the most vested interest in getting this film made. Second is that the "first money in" is always the hardest to get from foundations or investors, so if I can raise a chunk of money through micro-financing, that will help me get grants or investments. Micro-financing is an increasingly popular way to fund projects of all kinds (especially in this economy when no one has large sums of money to invest or give grants), and if one out of every three Messianic families donated $10-20 to the film (that’s just a couple of lattes at Starbucks!), I think I would have most of my budget covered. If you can donate more than that, that would be great! But no donation is too small! I should also add that anyone who donates $250 or more gets a special thanks in the credits. If you’re looking to donate much more than that, contact me and maybe we can think of something even better as a reward.

4. I’m looking for investors, and hoping there might be some interested parties within the Messianic movement. It’s been hard for me to get myself and the film out to the Messianic community, as I am somewhat limited by geography, and while I would love to just go across the country from congregation to congregation, at the moment I don’t have the budget to do that and so I am taking to the internet instead.

In conclusion, please contact me for any of the above reasons. And please go check out the website, read about the film, and feel free to leave feedback in the form of comments on the website, or you can also email me with feedback. Lastly, please don’t hesitate to forward this information to anyone you know who might be interested in the film, but who might not use the Messianic Center website. Thank you.