By Mark Kennedy, Entertainment Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --The Netflix series "Orange Is the New Black" isn't content with leaving behind a legacy of good television. It wants to do good in the real world, too.
The series' creative team said Thursday it has formed a fund that will support advocacy groups pressing for criminal justice reform and women re-entering society from prison, protect immigrants' rights and end mass incarceration.
The fund, named in honor of show character Poussey Washington, will spread out every donation equally to eight already-existing nonprofit groups. The announcement comes on the eve of the Friday premiere of the series' seventh and final season.
Washington, an inmate portrayed by actress Samira Wiley, is a fan favorite whose sudden death at the hands of officers in the fourth season stunned many viewers and was a nod to the recent cases of African-Americans killed in police custody.
Wiley said she's honored to have the fund named after her character and happy to have the show embrace real social responsibility.
"It's just a TV show, at the end of the day, but it's changing people's minds and hopefully with this fund it will be changing people's lives — getting them the education that they need, getting them the health care and the mental health care that they might need," she said.
"Orange Is the New Black" is loosely based on a memoir by Piper Kerman, a Smith College graduate from a patrician family who served 13 months in a Connecticut federal correctional institution on drug-related charges. The show, created and written by Jenji Kohan, became a showcase for actresses of color and brought issues around race, sexuality and criminal justice to the fore.
"The legacy of the show, I hope, is empathy. That, and a normalizing of diversity, which reflects real life," said Kohan. "The world is not one color or one socio-economic class or one gender. I think what we've come to appreciate most in our work are these crossroads where people who don't necessarily encounter one another are forced to. Great drama ensues. And comedy. And humanity."
Tara Herrmann, an executive producer and writer on the show, said the idea for the fund came from people over the years asking how they could give back. The fund was established with $50,000 in seed money from the show and is supported by GoFundMe.org.
"It's really a call to action to our fans," Herrmann said. "There are people out there who feel like, "Now what? What can we do? You've given us the story, we see it, we want to make a difference.' So hopefully this is a place to go,"
After reading Kerman's book, Herrmann said she and Kohan were immediately attracted to the world behind bars that few people explore and the way humor and love could exist in such a cruel system.
"These were women who were surviving in a world that is doing everything to keep them down. And the way they're surviving is the tribes that they're creating and the support system they're setting up," Herrmann said.
The Poussey Washington Fund will help eight groups: A New Way of Life: Reentry Project, Anti-Recidivism Coalition, College & Community Fellowship, Freedom for Immigrants, Immigrant Defenders Law Center, The National Council for the Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, the unPrison Project and Women's Prison Association. A fictional version of the fund will be featured in the last season of the show.
As for the finale, Herrmann said she hopes fans will like the way the season ends and wishes the characters linger in viewers' minds like one of her other favorite shows, "Mad Men."
"We hope that we've created the final season to live on," she said. "Every once and a while I think, 'I wonder what Peggy's up to. We hope that people do that with 'Orange,' too."
“Heretic” and “Maria” Set As Red Carpet Premieres At AFI Fest
The American Film Institute (AFI) has announced that Heretic, the psychological thriller starring Hugh Grant, and Maria, based on the life of opera singer Maria Callas starring Angelina Jolie, will round out the Red Carpet Premieres section at this year’s AFI Fest. The Heretic Gala Screening will take place on Thursday, October 24, and the Maria Gala Screening will be held on Saturday, October 26. The complete Red Carpet Premieres section includes the world premieres of Music By John Williams, Robert Zemeckis’ Here, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl and Clint Eastwood’s Juror #2. All Red Carpet Premieres will take place at the historic TCL Chinese Theatre. The full lineup for AFI Fest 2024 will be unveiled on October 1.
“At the heart of AFI Fest is an unwavering dedication to celebrating the best in global cinema--together,” said Bob Gazzale, AFI president and CEO. “We look forward to uniting artists and audiences once again to be inspired by the art form in a powerful sense of community.”
Heretic follows two young missionaries (Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East) who are forced to prove their faith when they knock on the wrong door and are greeted by a diabolical Mr. Reed (portrayed by Grant), becoming ensnared in his deadly game of cat-and-mouse. The film is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods and produced by Stacey Sher, Beck, Woods, Julia Glausi and Jeanette Volturno. The film will be released nationwide by A24 on November 8.
Directed by Pablo Larraín, Maria presents a tumultuous and beautiful depiction of one of the world’s most renowned artists and reimagines the legendary soprano in her final days in Paris, as Callas (Jolie)... Read More