WHAT A CLUSTERFUCK. In 2002, Firefly—the latest TV show
from Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and
Angel—was supposed to be the Next Big Thing. It
wasn’t.
Quickly and brutally cancelled, Firefly wasn’t heard from
again until a few years later—when a feature film,
Serenity, promised to resurrect Firefly‘s abandoned
characters and story. It didn’t.
That should have been the end of things. But it wasn’t. Instead,
fans of Firefly and Serenity rallied—getting
Serenity back onto movie screens all over the world, and
donating over $160,000 to charity in the process. All of this started
in Portland, and this weekend, it’ll happen all over again.
The Tragedy of Serenity
“Serenity‘s really unique in a lot of ways, but the tragedy
of Serenity is particularly unique,” says Dark Horse Comics’
Scott Allie, who edits the comic books based on Serenity and
Firefly. “You have this TV producer, Joss, who has a huge
fanbase [and has] created two really successful shows that people care
deeply and passionately about. And then he goes on and he launches
another show, [and] it’s hugely anticipated. And then the network
totally screws it up—buries it, kills it dead.”
The short version: Fox bought Whedon’s Firefly thinking they
were getting another Buffy. When they saw what he’d created
instead—a witty ensemble drama that mashed up the western and
sci-fi genres, and followed a crew of outlaws aboard a junky
spaceship—they panicked. (And really, can you blame them? But
Firefly‘s a billion times better than its synopsis, I swear:
Smart and heartfelt and original and scary and funny, it’s one of the
best shows in recent memory.) Fox refused to show Firefly‘s
pilot episode, aired other episodes out of order, and constantly
changed the show’s timeslot—in other words, they beat the thing
to a quick, bloody death.
But they hadn’t counted on Whedon’s infamously obsessive
fans—who bought so many Firefly DVDs that Universal
greenlit a feature film. Written and directed by Whedon,
Serenity—despite being one of the best films of 2005, and
despite being great in all the ways that the show was great—had a
meager box office haul. A sequel? Unlikely. So Serenity‘s
fans—calling themselves the Browncoats, after a group of noble
but defeated soldiers in the Firefly/Serenity universe—got
creative.
“Late in 2005, a group of Browncoats were leaving one of the last
big screen showings of Serenity,” says local Browncoat Anna
Snyder. “And [Portland Browncoat and blogger] the One True b!X [AKA
Christopher Frankonis] was thinking, ‘Hey, maybe there’s a way we could
get the movie on the big screen again, just for fun.’ And that morphed
into, ‘Well, if we could do it to raise some money, that would be
great.’ Which then became, ‘Hey, let’s organize a charity screening and
let’s see if we can get other cities involved.'”
The result: An annual fan-run event, bearing the stubborn title
Can’t Stop the Serenity. This year, Snyder is helping to organize the
event, where Serenity will be shown on the big screen, with the
proceeds going to charity. In 2006, Portland led the charge with a
screening of Serenity at Cinema 21; over 40 other cities joined
in. Last year, the event moved to the Hollywood Theatre and grew, with
cities in places as far away as England and New Zealand jumping
onboard. This year? Even bigger.
The screenings (timed to coincide with Whedon’s birthday—told
you his fans are obsessive) benefit Whedon’s favorite charity, Equality
Now. Since 1992, Equality Now has worked to “to end violence and
discrimination against women and girls around the world,” tackling
issues as diverse as political involvement, domestic violence,
reproductive rights, and female genital mutilation. Portland Browncoats
alone have so far raised over $21,000 for Equality Now; this weekend,
they’ll take over the Hollywood again, aiming to push that total even
higher.
The Cult of Whedon
The reason they’ll succeed is thanks, in large part, to their
tenacity: Firefly and Serenity fans are so passionate
about the property that they make those who wouldn’t shut up about
Sex and the City and The Sopranos look like halfhearted
poseurs.
“Man, you’d think it was Star Wars,” says Allie, who will be
one of several guest speakers at Portland’s Can’t Stop the Serenity
screenings. “You’d think it had been around for 20 years and changed
the culture, the way some of these guys react to it.” I ask Allie if he
ever gets weirded out in his dealings with some of the more fanatical
Browncoats. “They don’t freak me out because they don’t do anything
real weird, the way some fanbases do,” he says. “They have a simply
positive effect on the world. The only time you see Browncoats doing
anything, they’re raising money for a charity.”
“They’re just really a good group of people,” Snyder says of her
peers in the PDX Browncoats. “They come from such a wide spectrum, and
they’re very passionate about what they get involved in.” She adds,
“One of the underlying missions of the PDX Browncoats is that it’s not
only about the show. It’s about taking the values Joss Whedon expresses
through his writing, and through his personal life, and going
forth.”
“It was just amazing to see the Hollywood Theatre fill up for this
movie, two nights in a row, with this huge amount of energy and this
huge amount of enthusiasm,” Allie says, remembering last year’s
screenings. “It’s amazing that you take this love of this semi-obscure
sci-fi program, and turn it into a nationwide fundraiser for a cause
that happens to be near and dear to the creator of the show. Plus it’s
in Portland, and originated in Portland—it’s got it all going
on.”
No, Really… You Literally Cannot Stop It
I’m probably risking a Browncoat beating by writing this, but maybe
it’s a good thing Firefly and Serenity weren’t instant
hits. Had Firefly succeeded, by now it’d likely just be one more
thing for geeks to get boners over at comic book conventions. But
thanks to the rough road Serenity and Firefly have
traveled—not to mention the fans’
persistence—Serenity has ended up not only as a great
movie, but also as something that’s inspired a lot of people to do a
lot of good.
As with all cult phenomena, now it’s just a question of how long
it’ll last. When I ask Allie if he thinks the Browncoats might burn
out, he’s quick to answer. “It won’t die out,” he says. “Look at how
long [fans] burn candles for all these other things! And I do think
that’s where the quality of Joss’ stuff holds up—if people can
get passionate about, like, Stargate for years and years and
years, I think passion for what Joss does can last forever.”
Likewise, Snyder doesn’t see Can’t Stop the Serenity ending anytime
soon. “It’s been years since the show went off the air, and three years
since the movie was out,” she says. “This is gonna be around for a
while.”
Serenity screens at the Hollywood Theatre (4122 NE Sandy)
on Friday, June 20 and Saturday, June 21. Guest speakers include
Equality Now’s Amanda Sullivan (Friday night) and Dark Horse Editor
Scott Allie and Associate Editor Sierra Hahn (Saturday night).
Admission is $15 in advance, and $18.50 day of show, with all of the
proceeds benefiting Equality Now. More info: Movie Times on Found It!,
equalitynow.org, and
serenitynow.pdxbrowncoats.com.
