Would you like to buy a documentary?

I have always hated asking people for money. Ever since I was a Girl Scout peddling my cookies to neighbors and friends, I knew any job with the word “sales” in it would not be in my future. “Would you like to buy a box of Girl Scout cookies? You don’t have to, if you don’t want to. They’re kind of expensive. That’s okay, I’ll just go.” That was my sales pitch going door to door.

I hated it, even when it was a product I believed in. I believed in Thin Mints. I ate many a box growing up…probably because I couldn’t sell any, my parents took pity on me and bought a bunch. I never liked pressuring people to buy something. And yet I find myself very much in “sales.” Every time I try to book a gig, I’m selling my services. Doing freelance work you’re always having to market your talents, convince potential customers that you have something the other guys don’t, you pretty much have to sell yourself.

So here I am, trying to sell something. Something I believe in. And this time it’s not cookies and it’s not me. It’s a project. A documentary about clean drinking water and a community in Asheville, which at this very moment, is fighting for that very thing. I’m selling their story, their suffering, and a peek into the system we have set up to take care of problems like toxic waste leaking into people wells and coming out their faucets.

After putting everything that I have and everything that I am into the project for almost two years, I’ve realized that it’s too big for me. I need to hire some help. So I’m doing this fundraiser that is dangerously close to failing and almost equally as close to succeeding. I’m $2000 away from the funding I need to finish it. Maybe that’s too much to ask in times like these. Maybe it’s too much for a town where jobs are hard to find and people don’t have money to play with anymore. Would you like to buy a documentary? You don’t have to if you don’t want to. It’s kind of expensive…That’s okay, I’ll just go.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/233019965/toxic-asheville-feature-documentary/posts/152588

Screening a Clip of Toxic Asheville!

This Friday and Saturday at the 7pm and 10pm shows I will be screening a ten minute cut from the documentary and will be there before and after the movies with a table by the ticket booth to answer questions. I'll also have some prints to raffle off. So if you're in town, come see a movie and support my documentary!

http://ashevillebrewing.com/2011/index.html

Katie

P.S. - If you can't show up, you can still pledge: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/233019965/toxic-asheville-feature-documentary

I'm Crowdsourcing my Documentary!

So what is crowdsourcing? Well, instead of funding a project through a few large investors, you use a large group of investors giving a small amount. The site I'm using is called Kickstarter. You can check out my profile here: http://www.kickstarter.com/profile/233019965

They have lots of artists who need funding to complete their projects. The project I'm working on is my feature length documentary "Toxic Asheville." With kickstarter, if you don't meet your goal, no one pays. I will be fund raising for 40 days and my goal is $5000. The really neat thing about this site is that when you pledge and the goal is met, you will get different rewards for your pledges. For example, with my project if you pledge $25 you'll get a thank you credit in the movie and a DVD of my movie when it's finished. So in a way, it's kind of like pre-selling. I won't go into detail here, because that will all be on my page when I launch it.

So why and I telling you all this now? I'm hoping everyone will go and pledge on my opening day (Wednesday the 16th) or shortly there after. You don't have to give big, just $1 on Wednesday will get me some attention. If I can generate a big start with a lot of interest in my page, it might be featured as one of their "New and Noteworthy" projects and hopefully get seen by a lot more people. So go check out kickstarter and register now. The payments are made through Amazon.com, so if you've ever bought anything on Amazon, it will be easy to set up an account at http://www.kickstarter.com. I'll send out a reminder on Wednesday with a link when the page has been launched. Wish me luck!

Katie