Like many artists, Austin’s creative community is increasingly turning to crowdfunding platforms to cover developmental costs. For potential backers, it can be hard to navigate all the sites out there, so here’s a quick guide to some noteworthy campaigns. Remember, do your own due diligence before you back anything.
Who’s raising the funds?
Austin-grown Allie Lane (director of Sailor Poon‘s award-winning “Leather Daddy” video) and Angele Cooper (A&E’s docuseries 60 Days In) are launching Alpha Female Films, a queer interracial intersectional-feminist film production company. The duo cites the film industry’s lack of diversity and continued capitalization off of narratives from marginalized communities as driving forces behind Alpha Female Films. They are committed to telling stories written by people from within marginalized communities centering on societal homophobia, racism, and sexism.What’s the project?
More like projects! Lane and Cooper are funding two queer-centered short films, shooting in Austin, and the development of a feature film. Cooper describes “Love in the Shadows” as a personal story that follows a young black girl struggling to find her truth and addresses the dichotomy between religion and homosexuality. In “Butch Queen” Lane draws inspiration from her own upbringing as a queer person in rural America. The narrative centers on an interracial lesbian couple that is tested by their Podunk town. The feature film, Our Darkest Hours, draws on Cooper’s recent experience as a participant in 60 Days In, and follows an undercover officer who falls in love with an inmate.Target:
$35,000 goal by September 7.What are the perks?
$50 gets you early and digital access to both finished shorts, while higher pledges include an invitation to the wrap party and associate producer credit. Head on over to Seed and Spark to help them reach their goal.This article appears in August 31 • 2018.