For the past three years, I’ve helped organize the Atheist Film Festival (AFF) in San Francisco. At the 5th Annual AFF this past September, we had the distinct honor of hosting the world premiere of Hug an Atheist, a documentary by Belgian filmmaker Sylvia Broeckx about the everyday lives, loves, and values of atheists in America. It is a heartwarming and honest portrayal of members of the secular community, features the music of Mad Art Lab friends Quiet Company, and was my favorite film from last year’s festival.
http://youtu.be/PCOmJ5tGYBg
One of the special things about Hug an Atheist is that its production was made possible through donations from the international atheist community via a crowdfunding campaign. It is a film truly by, for, and about atheists. And now filmmaker Broeckx is turning to this community again to help her get her film to even more festivals! With two weeks left to fundraise, Broeckx is over halfway to her goal of $2500 but can use more help. You can contribute to the IndieGoGo campaign here.
You can also read an interview AFF did with Slyvia on the festival website, where she explains,
I thought the most important myth to debunk would be our supposed lack of morality and not doing any good for the community. It amazes me how people seem to think that you need the idea of a punishing God figure with his threat of torture in the after-life to have morals. Psychologists have long shown that a sense of morality supersedes any religion notions in children, yet even people who don’t think atheists are bad just assume we borrow our moral ideas from religion and if everyone were an atheist people would lose any sense of morality and start stealing and killing each other.
Thanks for supporting this fantastic film!
