Kickstart Your Weekend

We're taking a different approach with the column this week, with some news about a few different crowdfunding campaigns with local ties instead of spotlighting one in particular.

• The team behind psychological thriller The Mangled, which we featured in August, has relaunched their campaign to great success. Their first attempt set an impossibly high goal, and since Kickstarter is an all-or-nothing platform, they were doomed to failure. This time around? With 33 days to go, they've already raised almost triple their original goal of $5,000. Check out the new goals and backer rewards here.

• Deadline Hollywood reported this week that Bill and Ted star Alex Winter (whose Napster doc Downloaded premiered at South by Southwest this past spring) will stick to the Web for his next documentary, but go a little deeper … as in, Deep Web. He's set to direct Deep Web: The Untold Story of Bitcoin and Silk Road, about the volatile virtual currency and the black market website that have been in the headlines since Austin son Ross William Ulbricht was arrested last month on conspiracy charges. Look for a crowdfunding campaign to launch for that project soon. A Bitcoin doc funded by Bitcoins? It's too good.

• One promising underdog? "Chupacabra," by New York-based Jenny Joslin. Wait, New York? Production company Texpats is behind the project, and the story focuses on two sisters in the Texas Hill Country, so there's plenty of Texas ties to this one, y'all. They've already completed filming (in a very quick two days), but they're trying to raise $4,000 to finish postproduction. Check out a trailer here:

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Kickstart Your Weekend is a series intended to showcase Texas film and tech projects that are crowdfunding their way to a goal, be it distribution, a prototype, or production costs. If you have a project that we should know about, email us at filmflam@austinchronicle.com.