Company/Organization Profiles | Film Funding | Kickstart New England | Local Industry

Kickstart New England: April 2013

1 Apr , 2013  

Written by Casey Stirling | Posted by:

Every month, NewEnglandFilm.com is highlighting exciting new local film projects looking for funding on Kickstarter. This month, consider opening your wallets for two NewEnglandFilm.com festival filmmakers: Ellen Brodsky with her documentary True Colors: OUT Youth Theater and Todd J. Lajoie with his comedy The Brothers Kasparov. To feature your film in this series, e-mail editor@newenglandfilm.com with a blurb on your film and Kickstarter campaign.

Check out two Kickstarter projects, both from filmmakers who showed films at the 2012 NewEnglandFilm.com Online Film Festival:

True Colors: OUT Youth Theater

Massachusetts filmmaker Ellen Brodsky recently launched a Kickstarter campaign for her upcoming documentary about the True Colors: OUT Youth Theater. Created in 1994 by Boston’s Theater Offensive, the theater works with LGBTQ youth to develop original productions that eventually tour the city.

The proposed documentary will follow the True Colors troupe for a year, from their rehearsals and performances to their lives at school and at home. Director Ellen Brodsky, along with associate producer Pam Chamberlain, editor Peter Rhodes, and cinematographer Austin de Besche, have filmed hours of footage so far, but are hoping for at least $55,000 from Kickstarter to fund the rest of the project. “The scenes they perform make powerful theater, and the troupe changes hearts and minds wherever it goes,” Chamberlain recently wrote in a piece for the Huffington Post. “Because our film crew wants the message of True Colors to reach far beyond the Boston area, we are making this movie.” The project is already gathering steam; within the first 24 hours it went live on Kickstarter, it had so much action the website put it in their POPULAR section. True Colors is already halfway to their goal, but they still have a ways to go!

To learn more and to donate, visit the Kickstarter page. The deadline is Wed, April 10 at 11:59pm.

Check out Brodsky’s 2012 Audience Award in Comedy winning film from the 2012 NewEnglandFilm.com festival: What Do You Know?

The Brothers Kasparov

New Hampshire native Todd J. Lajoie’s kickstarter page just went live for proposed film The Brothers Kasparov, a “family-oriented comedy” about “two grown adults who have been suddenly forced to end their 30-year dependency of their parents” and venture out into the cold dark woods of Canada.

A modern, comedic spin on Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov, Lajoie’s film is looking to raise $16,000 over the course of the month. Lajoie’s filmmaking team focuses on a “clean-style” of filmmaking, looking to both entertain viewers of all ages, and to teach life lessons “just as most 90’s family comedies did.” Their goal with The Brothers Kasparov is to make both an “insanely funny and often ridiculous film” and to “[deliver] important messages to the younger viewers regarding personal responsibility and respect.” Just at the start of their fundraising, The Brothers Kasparov is looking for backers! If you’ve got $1,000 to spare, they’ll name a character in the film after you!

To learn more and to donate, visit the Kickstarter page. The deadline is Sunday, April 28 at 5:57am.

Check out Lajoie’s 2012 Audience Award in Comedy winning film from the 2012 NewEnglandFilm.com festival: Buddy Love