My documentary getting a lot of buzz - its about civil rights and baseball in America

[tumbleweed]

Please forgive the bad grammar in the title. I've been a member here for many, many years. Sometimes active, sometimes not as much. Bought and sold. Chimed in on opinions. Sought advice but never really followed the "cafe" much. I started shooting my documentary "The Other Boys of Summer" in 2007 using my DVX100a. I was feeling pretty happy about being able to capture great interviews with what was - at the time - a great camera. Honestly I still love that camera but obviously it's been a long time since I've shot anything on it. It was great in its day. After working on my film, in between paying jobs, I am thrilled to share that I am very close to having it completed. It's been 100% out of pocket and that's taken a long time. The film explores racism and segregation in America through the lives of the Negro League baseball players. I have exclusive interviews with the men who played alongside of Jackie Robinson. These guys not only changed the game of baseball, but they changed America. I launched a kickstarter on MLK day to raise awareness and support to enable me to pay the licensing fees for music and archival materials. I was blown away by the wave of support immediately. My film was trending as the #1 doc on kickstarter for the first 2 days. I reached my initial goal in 4 days. Part of the reason I'm sharing this is to obviously let you know about the film but ALSO encourage everyone to keep pursuing your dreams. It's hard work and takes a long time and many road bumps and rejections along the way - but my film is resonating with people all over. My campaign runs for another 2 weeks and I am using it to expand the reach of the film. I want to be able to afford to do screenings all across the country and also create educational materials to accompany the film so it can be used in schools as part of curriculum. If you want to see more about the film you can check out the website - www.theotherboysofsummer.com or DM me. I'd love to share the kickstarter link here too but I don't know if that is ok and I'm not trying to ruffle any feathers. My goal of this post is to encourage you to keep going after your dreams. I don't know where my film will end up, but it feels great to see how it's resonating with so many people. Enjoy your Sunday!

 

[robfilms]

wonderful posting!

congrats on moving your doc forward.

we can all use a little light on the trail.

"you just gotta go..."

thumbs up.

be well.

rob
smalltalk productions/nyc

 

[puredrifting]

Very inspirational Tumbleweed. I am producing two documentary films currently, same thing, microbudget, looking to get some money to keep shooting and to complete post. The hope is that one or both will end up on one of the OTTs but that seems like a long way away. Been shooting a year on each and have this year and possibly next year shooting on one of them, one will wrap production at the end of this year. It takes a lot of faith and perserverance to put in so many hours on films that we may or may not break even on or show a profit to pay ourselves once they are completed. Good to see that if you keep the faith, work hard and can discover an interesting story that will move people so that they will want to see your film.

Best of luck with taking it to the next step.