We’re Raffling Off a Bunch of Cool Stuff to Benefit The Texas Civil Rights Project

So, here's the thing.

Here at Birth.Movies.Death., we obsess over entertainment for a living. Movies and video games and genre television are supposed to be our main focus, the stuff we spend every morning, afternoon and evening writing about. Whether it's Evan singing the praises of the Godzilla franchise, Jacob diving to the deepest depths of the exploitation genre, Emily offering up book adaptation coverage, Andrew giving the video game industry (and Star Wars fans) what-for, Brian obsessing over horror minutiae, Amelia covering the CW superhero beat, me endlessly snarking at the news, or Leigh dragging what needs to be dragged, we have a daily goal, and that goal is simple: entertain and inform our readers - and, yes, ourselves - about everything important happening in the world of pop culture.

But lately, focusing on the goings-on in the world of entertainment has become something of a taller order. It's difficult to give your attention to, say, the 400th Joker movie announcement when the country's in crisis, our leadership's in the middle of a spectacular implosion, and families are being torn apart at the border in a not-so-thinly-veiled gambit towards erecting a $70B monument to xenophobia. Everywhere we turn, the world seems to be going up in flames, but we're supposed to act excited about another round of character posters? You can see why this would be difficult.

Last week, the BMD staff found itself in yet another morale-destroying conversation about the country's State of Affairs, but this time our despair led to another conversation: what could we, a scrappy little staff spread out all over the country, possibly do to help the families who've been cruelly separated while seeking asylum in the United States? Well, on an immediate, practical level - not much. But on a broader level, there's plenty we can do, starting with charity work. This is how we arrived at the idea of the Birth.Movies.Death. "Families Belong Together" Raffle.

What we've done is collect up a number of attractive giveaway items, stuff we're certain will appeal to our awesome readership. We called up our friends at Mondo and the Alamo Drafthouse and asked if they wanted in (of course they did), and together we've assembled an absolutely kick-ass collection of Raffle Packages, all of which will be given away to five lucky people who make a donation at this page. Every cent collected will go directly to the Texas Civil Rights Project, a non-profit organization that, even as we speak, is working to help families who've been separated while crossing into the United States (you can read more about the Texas Civil Rights Project here; they're great people).

We'll get to how this raffle will work in just a moment. First, let's take a look at what's being given away:

Raffle Package #1: 

• COSMOPOLIS one-sheet signed by director David Cronenberg and star Robert Pattinson (donated by Jacob Q. Knight)
• DAWN OF THE DEAD poster signed by Tom Savini and Ken Foree (donated by Emily Sears)
• $50 Alamo Drafthouse gift card (donated by the Alamo Drafthouse)
• One copy of Birth.Movies.Death.’s JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM magazine signed by director JA Bayona (donated by BMD)

Raffle Package #2:

• Stephen King-autographed copy of THE DARK TOWER: THE GUNSLINGER (donated by Scott Wampler, who apologizes for the slight bend in the cover)
• Mondo's gorgeous DRIVE screenprint, by Rory Kurtz (donated by Mondo)
• One copy of Birth.Movies.Death.’s JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM magazine signed by director JA Bayona (donated by BMD)

Raffle Package #3:

• A pair of Sphero STAR WARS Droids (donated by Amelia Emberwing)
• Mondo's JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS 2XLP, signed by Rachel Leigh Cook, Rosario Dawson, Tara Reid, Kay Hanley, Deb Caplan, and Harry Elfont (donated by Mondo)

Raffle Package #4:

• Mondo's HARLEQUINADE screenprint, by Phantom City Creative (donated by Mondo)
• One $50 Alamo Drafthouse gift card (donated by the Alamo Drafthouse)
• One cross-stitch of your choice (size, number of colors to TBD), lovingly created by BMD managing editor Evan Saathoff (donated by Evan Saathoff)
• One copy of Birth.Movies.Death.’s JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM magazine signed by director JA Bayona (donated by BMD)

Raffle Package #5:

• Mondo's stunning 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY print, by Matthew Woodson (donated by Mondo)
• Mondo's JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS 2XLP, signed by Rachel Leigh Cook, Rosario Dawson, Tara Reid, Kay Hanley, Deb Caplan, and Harry Elfont (donated by Mondo)

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Pretty cool, right? 

So, here's how this works: head to this campaign page and make a donation of at least $10. Every $10 donation secures you one entry in the raffle. We'll be collecting donations through next Wednesday, July 4th, and next Friday (July 6th) we will announce who the five randomly-selected winners are. The winners will get to choose from the five Raffle Packages pictured above, and they'll get to choose based on the amount of money they donated to this campaign (Donate $50, and you get to choose before the person who donated $10; donate $100, you get to choose before the person who donated $50, and so on). The more you donate, the better chance you have of obtaining the specific Raffle Package you want. In the unlikely event that all five randomly-selected donors are found to have donated the same amount of money, well, we'll use one of those random-number-generator things to determine the order. 

If you've got questions about how any of this works, please feel free to drop 'em in a comment below (or please consult the campaign page for additional details re: timing, shipping, and so on), and either myself or my associate, Amelia Emberwing (who has way more experience organizing one of these things than I do, and we thank her for her superhuman patience) will do our best to answer them. Good luck to everyone who throws in on this! We're very excited to see how everything turns out, and thank all of you in advance for your support.