In an attempt to stretch my wings a bit and keep this blog relevant and useful to the community which it serves so intrepidly (ahem), I've decided to start a series called Projects On the Brink (with a grateful wink and a nod to my friend, Jesse, the original OTB boy). Photo by Julie Shiels.
To jumpstart this endeavor, a while ago I blogged a short post called Attention All Micro Budgeters, asking for filmmakers in production or post-production to get in touch with me if they were funding their nonfiction film projects with very small amounts of money from a wide array of sources, artists who were building a constituency (audience) for their work by asking people showing interest in the project to help fund it with as little or as much as they wanted to offer. We have certainly seen success stories out there using this method, but I thought I'd jump into the fray and highlight those projects that have fallen outside the purview of Sundance, ITVS, PBS, HBO, IFP and other organizations that supply labs and mentors to a few projects every year to give them a leg up. For many filmmakers, this leg never appears no matter how many applications they complete, so it's hoist the mainsails and DIY all the way, baby. It gives me pleasure to celebrate this kind of independent filmmaker and showcase the foolhardy bravery on display to keep moving forward, despite odds stacked so high even Sisyphus is intimidated and calls it a day.
I'm also getting opportunities to see film projects in their infancy and have chosen to track a few as case studies in how all of this is supposed to be working without any viable funding support. To a person, it involves sheer perseverance and determination to keep moving forward, of course. But in Diana Whitten's case, it has encompassed a marketing and outreach strategy as one of the core pillars of her creative endeavor at her project's inception. In this first installment of POTB, we'll talk about her feature-length documentary project called Vessel, currently entering its post-production phase.
I want to highlight this project for a number of reasons, but mostly because I think Whitten's struggle to make her film adequately mirrors many other nonfiction projects out there: a filmmaker sitting with hours and hours of compelling footage, somewhere in that amassed footage a great story waiting to be told. At this moment in time, Whitten is in the midst of editing, something she's not really had a chance in which to devote too much time since she also works as a freelance videographer and other temp work to support herself. And also because she has devoted most of her time on the outreach, marketing and audience-building for Vessel. At this point, she needs a substantive "teaser" piece to deliver to her executive producer, Mitchell Block, so he can shop it around for finishing funds and look for investors who need to see more of a polished piece before offering funding.
Almost from its inception, when she read about Dr. Rebecca Gomperts (pictured) and her team of doctors and volunteers sailing a ship through loopholes in international law, providing abortions at sea for women with no other safe option, Whitten has concentrated on getting the story, certainly. But more than that, what she's done is to use this project to build a community--not after the film is made, but well before that happens. Dutch doctor, Rebecca Gomperts and her organization, Women On Waves, sail a ship around the world to countries where abortion is illegal. Using a hotline for communication, the activists pick up women at various ports and take them twelve miles offshore (outside the jurisdiction of domestic waters). On board, doctors administer safe medical abortions. Of course, they cause havoc, mayhem and immense outbursts of opposition and rage from local churches, governments, and the media wherever they sail, provoking much controversy and debate among the population.
Whitten realized the advantages of building a worldwide community right away and got busy getting fiscal sponsors in place (Arts Engine and Off the Leesh) so that she and her outreach coordinator, Danielle Bernstein, could utilize the money coming in to build a website which houses a hub of activity well beyond just reports on the production progress of the film. It was also an opportunity to start Sovereignty Productions, "a forum to use video and new media to explore how sovereign spaces, those offshore and of exile, can be isolated and charged by activist agendas that challenge accepted frameworks in the name of social change." Right away, Whitten figured out how to utilize the power of the Internet to keep that community growing, to continue to constituency-build and gather a good-sized population of people hooked into the project at production stage. Part of that outreach work is consolidating and organizing the contacts she gathers, constantly organizing and winnowing them down. With the help of a program like Constant Contact, her plan is to start sending out regular posts and other info via personal emails for a much more targeted approach, assuring people that their investment in the project means there is some modicum of "ownership" in its success, the foundation of a strong PR and marketing machine.
In the midst of an editing session, Whitten took some time to chat with me about the project and her journey, thus far. She was also getting ready for another quick shooting trip to Amsterdam (where there have been grave setbacks in abortion policy) to capture the celebration of the 10th anniversary of Women On Waves' mission. The majority of present and future fundraising efforts is geared towards post-production needs. One of the main things for which she needs money is to hire an editor, but right now she is taking pleasure in the creative work of delving into the footage, something she hasn't really had an opportunity to do with everything else needing almost full-time attention. But eventually, she hopes to bring editor Madeleine Gavin onto the project.
Whitten admits that the long, uphill process to keep things moving, which has included lots of unexpected things along the way, has been beneficial and advantageous. In odd ways, the length of time it takes to create and finish a project like this, can also be a distinct benefit. She acknowledges that this is the case with Vessel, because in that time it has allowed a fuller, more substantive story to emerge. "The nature of making a documentary does consist largely of not knowing what's going to happen to your subjects or your story. In the beginning, I thought the movie would be confined to what was happening in Ecuador, but that course was suddenly changed before the ship ever got there when it had a wreck on its way to Quito from Costa Rica. There was the question of whether the Women On Waves campaign could continue." This event, among others, encouraged her to pull down her "documentarian's wall," and she quickly became a participant in the proceedings, as well as the one following the story. In this spirit, she started a really excellent blog from the very beginning of the project. Many blog entries have also appeared on other highly-trafficked sites, such as The Huffington Post.
As with most documentary projects, Whitten first learned of Gomperts and her work through a friend and she set about researching the doctor, her work and the organization. About two and a half years ago, she impulsively bought a ticket to Amsterdam to meet Gomperts, even before really speaking with her or asking permission to film her story. In fact, a couple of weeks before she was supposed to leave, she still hadn't called or corresponded with Dr. Gomperts, apprehensive that she wouldn't meet with Whitten or be interested in the project. "She turned out to be very nice and, also, very media-savvy," says Whitten. "She was immediately interested in being followed with a camera."
I asked her to explain why, as a filmmaker, she had to tell this story and follow this impulse without any backing or real forethought about what she might be getting herself into. "Obviously, the subject matter spoke very forcefully to me: this issue has touched most everyone, or at least someone they know and it's still hard to discuss considering how many legal, moral, ethical, religious and philosophical challenges surround it. Also, and in many ways more importantly, there was this highly romantic notion of this team of women sailing the high seas and using modern technology, modern media, to disseminate messages across the globe, using networks to connect people.
"I found myself having conversations about abortion and abortion rights, what it means to not have any rights, with people from every demographic you can think of. It's been wildly eye-opening in that sense, the stories people will share with you, the conclusions and realizations they share. They've never shared these stories with anyone before, mostly because no one has ever asked. These conversations were with people who would otherwise think the subject impolite, unapproachable, forbidden. There's still a good amount of fear and ignorance around the issue and people relate to it in various ways on a very personal level. The making of this film, concentrating on the work that Rebecca is doing, is a great vehicle to get those conversations going. As we've gone along, the number of people who know about the project and have been educated by the contents of the film, has grown. I've also taken every opportunity I can to speak at schools and other organizations."
She also feels like her experience, in a way, has mirrored that of her subject. A lot of people are drawn to the story at first blush by the subject matter, the controversy, etc. But because the story hits most everyone on such a personal and visceral level, that connection is key to making and disseminating a meaningful piece of work. The metaphor of being "offshore," and having that offshore entity connected to the world via technology and media, is quite profound and really might be what the film speaks to over and above the abortion issue and its legalities and human rights quandaries. Gomperts and crew are what amount to modern-day pirates, garnering lots of press and attention through their work in a very deliberate and dramatic way. Both subjects and filmmakers are at a table with very high stakes, indeed.
"I'm not really interested in making a movie about the ethical debates of abortion. My goals for making this film are in line with what resonates the most with people when they learn about this project, the story of one woman and her dedicated team doing something extraordinary--beyond the ken of what most of us are willing to take on. The biggest lesson I've learned, thus far, is that any artist creating something like this needs to be very clear on why you're making what you're making. Yes, there's the issue; but there's the story that's compelling and exciting and life-changing. Rebecca is the kind of subject that, despite your personal feelings about her, changes the way you see the world a bit. She's dedicated to making it better for the women that still live in countries where it's against the law to have an abortion. She discovered a really classical way to get the conversation going and that's what I want to highlight in my film."
Going back to funding and finding the money to start this endeavor, I asked about any problems or roadblocks in raising funding directly because of the subject matter. After throwing themselves into a grass-roots fundraising mode, Whitten and her small team reached out to people they knew first to get the ball rolling and enlisted those friends to help start a massive letter-writing campaign, get the website up and running, start a blog and designate a spot for donations directly on the site. "We received a couple of hundred checks, some as low as $15, but money did start to come in. Some of those checks, however, were pretty generous and just from that effort, we raised about $27K. So for such a modest effort, we did pretty well. I also, at that time, started applying for grants, a really long process--some take close to a year to get back to you and the amounts, when they do come through, are pretty low. I do think people were, and are, a bit scared of the topic; it takes an open mind and a dedication to female causes, in particular. I think what we make clear, however, in all of our communications, is that this film is about so much more than the abortion issue. I think it deals with a lot of the UN Millenium goals, for instance."
Executive producer, Mitchell Block, came onto the project rather early and helped secure some substantial investors in that first grass-roots push. After seeing an early trailer, shown to him by Diana's sister, he committed to the project and offered whatever support he could. However, even with an exec producer, Whitten is still doing the majority of the legwork for fundraising, the onus still on her, the one person with the biggest vested interest in realizing completion, thus her commitment right now to getting a more comprehensive piece done. Since Block is also well-versed in distribution and distribution strategies, he needs that fuller piece to use in his efforts to secure monies for exhibiting and disseminating the film, a major advantage of working with someone with those kinds of connections and know-how.
Even though many filmmakers are still trying to skirt the inevitability of having to put all this in place, just as much as any production component, and even though this work is overwhelming in its intensity of labor and time, Whitten feels confident that Vessel will be well-positioned to make much more of an impact than if she hadn't bothered to do all the preliminary outreach work involved in setting up this scenario and keeping it in motion as she's gone about making and crafting the film. It will stand her in good stead when all is said and done, for both her exhibition plan and the film's domestic and international distribution.
Acknowledging that her site will be set up to also work as a public forum and repository for issue-oriented information and a meeting spot for sharing stories from around the world, it should prove to be an impressive archive for many different organizations and communities. Diana finds the potential for all this very exciting and energizing; she herself has admitted that it has helped her become more politicized, more willing to put her own voice out there regularly. The honing of this skill, becoming a public advocate through your creative work, cannot be overestimated in the way this helps to court audiences. It's equally as fundamental as courting a funder or an executive producer to drive a project forward.
The example of Vessel's story shows us that to harness the way we create modes of communication and outreach for our film projects can be just as much of an adventure as making the film, for in this effort lies the potential for people to want to go out to the movies again. That is to say that the "community" will not ultimately live just on the Internet, but will physically gather and come together to experience a collective event, one in which they have been personally invested all along.
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