The Way We Get By (2-Disc Collector's Edition DVD)

VISIT THE KICKSTARTER PROJECT NOW

The filmmakers behind the award-winning documentary "The Way We Get By" need your help to make the 2-Disc Collector's Edition DVD of the film a reality. Now that the film has had a successful film festival life, theatrical run, national television broadcast, and basic DVD release, we are bringing our self distribution model to the friends and fans of "The Way We Get By".

Our goal is to produce and release a 2-Disc Collector's Edition DVD of "The Way We Get By" loaded with never-before-seen special features. But producing this double DVD set is costly. Our idea is to bring it to you, the audience, and ask for help covering the cost of production.

The reward for helping us? Give to the project and receive one of the 2-Disc Collector's Edition DVDs when they are released-- pre-paying for your DVD in a way. We have also included several other great reward options for different levels of contributions.

Here is a list of some of the special features we hope to include in the 2-Disc Collector's Edition DVD:

› Commentary track with the filmmakers and all three troop greeters-- Bill, Joan, and Jerry-- from "The Way We Get By"

› "The Way Maine Gets By" - A short film behind-the-scenes of the Maine red carpet premiere of "The Way We Get By" featuring all three troop greeters

› "Making the Music" - A behind-the-scenes look at the making of the music for the film featuring composer Zack Martin

› Filmmaker interviews with director Aron Gaudet and producer Gita Pullapilly from the PBS Veterans Day premiere on POV

› "The Way We Get By: On The Festival Circuit" - A featurette with footage of the troop greeters at several film festivals including Q&As

› Paley Center for Media Event - A special New York City Q&A with the filmmakers and Bill and Jerry from "The Way We Get By"

› AARP Awards Hollywood Gala - See all three troop greeters accept the Best Documentary award at the star-studded event in Los Angeles

› "The Way We Get Married" - A look at the wedding of "The Way We Get By" filmmakers and the team behind the event-- Real Weddings Maine

› Bonus footage of Joan's granddaughter Amy returning home from Iraq and being greeted by the Maine Troop Greeters

› Several deleted scenes from "The Way We Get By"

If you would be interested in seeing these special features, please help make the 2-Disc Collector's Edition DVD of "The Way We Get By" a reality.

The Way We Get By Crew at the White House

Our blogs are coming slow but they are coming.

In October, we were fortunate to get a special tour of the White House and a 30 minute meet and greet with Vice President Biden. It was a wonderful opportunity for Bill, Joan, and Jerry to talk with the Vice President about their love of troop greeting. And the Vice President talked with all of us about his son's journey of service in the military. It was a very emotional meeting for us all and one we will never forget.

We would like to thank the White House team for giving us this wonderful, lifetime opportunity!

Gita and Aron's Wedding - Behind The Scenes...

For those of you who are interested in the amazing FREE wedding Gita and I were given in Maine a few weeks ago-- courtesy of Real Weddings Maine and the 60+ wedding vendors who joined forces to form RWM-- I thought I would offer to you these links as a full tour of the wedding... a six-part blog posting on 'Style Me Pretty' wedding blog which takes you through the entire 3-day event...

Style Me Pretty – 6 Part Wedding Blog...

http://www.stylemepretty.com/2009/11/11/veterans-day-wedding/

http://www.stylemepretty.com/2009/11/11/veterans-day-wedding-part-ii/

http://www.stylemepretty.com/2009/11/11/veterans-day-wedding-part-iii/

http://www.stylemepretty.com/2009/11/11/veterans-day-wedding-iv/

http://www.stylemepretty.com/2009/11/11/veterans-day-wedding-v/

http://www.stylemepretty.com/2009/11/11/veterans-day-wedding-vi/

It pretty much sums up the gift of a lifetime Gita and I received. Hope you enjoy it. We sure did!

CNN and New York Times stories on THE WAY WE GET BY

This is an exciting weekend for us! CNN has done a story on THE WAY WE GET BY. Check out the video and be sure to share it with your friends and family!

CNN VIDEO on THE WAY WE GET BY

Also, the New York Times has an article on us-- Aron and I getting married thanks to REAL WEDDINGS MAINE! Check out the article!

Help us continue to spread the word about THE WAY WE GET BY! And don't forget our Veterans Day (November 11) national television broadcast on PBS' POV at 9pm!! We're bringing THE WAY WE GET BY home!

Show Support For "The Way We Get By"...

The Way We Get By already has the support of a number of organizations, including the USO, the American Legion and Serve.gov, which is part of President Obama's United We Serve initiative. We hope that you will help us spread word about the broadcast, as the film highlights the impact of individual action and how a small act of kindness can change lives.

Here are a variety of ways that you can support and promote the November 11 broadcast of The Way We Get By airing at 9 PM on most PBS stations. (Check local listings.) Tell your friends about these ways to participate in promoting the film by emailing them this page.

Thank you for your support!

HELP PROMOTE THE PBS BROADCAST!!

Post this 300 x 250 pixel ad on your site and link to the trailer of the film.



All you have to do is copy the HTML code from the text window below and paste it into the HTML of your website or blog where you want the image to appear. If you need any help, or would like to request a different sized logo, please email events [at] pov.org.

And...we're back!! Southern Circuit cont...

Note to self: Never follow months and months of working 7 days a week with a 3-day wedding extravaganza, and a 2-week trip traveling state-to-state all through the south again...because you WILL get a horrible, debilitating cold. Got it. Never again.

Yes, Gita and I enjoyed our first two screenings on the Southern Circuit Film Tour. We enjoyed our two free days in Nashville. We flew to Alexandria, Louisiana on day 5, and promptly got sick. Me first and then Gita-- both with bad colds that we are just now beginning to recover from. Let me tell you, nothing cures a cold faster than constant travel...lots of airplanes and driving.



It started with a sore throat in Alexandria. But with our biggest crowd on the tour-- a really great, engaged audience-- it was easy to look past it. We were told before the screening that a soldier had called the venue, saying he had been through Bangor and been greeted by the Maine Troop Greeters, and was planning to attend the show. During our Q&A, he stood up and recounted his experience traveling through Bangor, saying he remembered how nice my Mom had been to him. After the Q&A, he introduced himself as Bobby Strother and said he had a gift he wanted to send back to the troop greeters with us. We agreed to meet him the next morning so he could bring us the gift before we hit the road to New Orleans. The next morning we met Bobby in front of the local drug store after stocking up on cold medicine and tissues. Bobby handed me a large triangular wooden box with a glass front. A perfectly folded American flag rested behind the glass, and an engraved plaque read...



This was no normal gift...a unit coin, a thank you card, no-- this was something Bobby had laid his life on the line for. Something that represented everything Bobby loved about America, and he talked to us for a long time about just that, and about how tough it is to come back after serving and having to re-adjust, and about friends getting divorced, and about friends dying, and about how if he had to go back again he'd pack his bag and leave tomorrow because serving his country was worth it. He said, "when we're over there we're wearing our vests which are about 75 lbs. and all our gear and we carried two weapons, so you're talking about 100 lbs of gear...we had a lot of weight we were carrying with us over there."...And it just made me think about watching the troops walk down the ramp over and over again at the Bangor International Airport and seeing them breathe a big sigh of relief at the sight of the troop greeters, and the flags waving, and the smiles welcoming them home, and how it really is "that moment" when the weight of it all is finally lifted off their shoulders. I can't wait to get back to Bangor to pass along Bobby's gift.

Tomorrow, I'll spare you the most boring trip to New Orleans ever, as we spent the entire time in our hotel room coughing and sneezing, and I'll skip ahead to our screenings in Alabama and Mississippi and the story of "Big Joe" Evans going for the oyster eating record. How can you not be excited?!

Southern Circuit Film Tour - Day 1 & 2...

"This is not our honeymoon..."
Aron Gaudet

This was Gita and I on Friday...



That's right, we got married on the coast of Maine (notice the paparazzi chasing us?), and two days later we were in Nashville, TN. The Southern Circuit Film Tour happened to fall directly after our wedding, and so although we made it very clear to each other that "THIS IS NOT OUR HONEYMOON!", the trip definitely has a weird honeymoon vibe to it all.

Day one took us from the Bangor International Airport (where much of The Way We Get By takes place) to Nashville and Vanderbilt University. This is the first year the folks at Vanderbilt have taken part in the Southern Circuit Film Tour-- so that means we're even. It meant maybe a slightly smaller crowd than normal, but definitely a group of people that would probably otherwise never have the opportunity to see our film in a semi-theatrical setting. And even though we were screening at a university, the crowd was littered with people of all ages, so the word apparently had spread beyond the campus. All in all a successful screening.

Gita and I love a good breakfast place, so day two started with us trying to choose between the Loveless Cafe and The Pancake Pantry-- 2 local favorites that everyone seemed to recommend. The choice was made easier when we discovered The Pancake Pantry was less than a mile away. We drove up to find a long line waiting outside on a Tuesday morning!! This place had to be good right? The line moved quickly and Gita and I were soon experiencing the best pancakes either one of us has ever had... we're still talking about them. Let's hope the pancakes on day two are not the highlight of the trip, but you've got to start somewhere.

After the best pancakes on earth, we set out for Bowling Green, Kentucky for our screening at Western Kentucky University. It's a little over an hour north of Nashville and the scenery is exactly what I would expect driving from Tennessee into Kentucky-- rolling fields and farms, old weathered boards holding up barns that looked like they should collapse, but somehow were still standing. Just beautiful countryside for a drive.

We made it to Bowling Green and to our screening to find a bigger audience made up primarily of students. We always like showing the film to a younger audience because everyone assumes that The Way We Get By will appeal more to senior citizens and baby boomers, but what many people forget is it's young men and women on the other side of the handshake, heading to war or returning home, so a university campus is filled with people that have brothers or sisters or friends that have been through Bangor and met the troop greeters. Last night was no exception, as a student approached us after the film to tell us he had been deployed through Bangor and remembered meeting all three of the subjects from the film-- especially Bill who is always the first in line to greet the troops. Everywhere we go it seems the Maine Troop Greeters have made their mark in some way. It was reassuring to know Bowling Green was no different.

Coming up... Day 3 & 4 are rest/travel days so we're working on something fun to do before heading to Alexandria, LA for our next screening on Friday. Keep reading.