Today on Kickstarter I supported “The Encyclopedia Game,” a documentary film about people who vandalize Wikipedia. I use, love, and am intrigued by Wikipedia, the trailer looks great; and the project only has five days left to raise a big chuck of cash. Here's the trailer:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1725543613/the-encyclopedia-game-a-quirky-film-on-wikipedia-v?ref=live

WHY FIVE DOLLARS?
One of the interesting things that happened during a recent Kickstarter fundraising campaign for my own film, SOURLANDS, is that someone pledged $1. I remember opening up my email and thinking “Why did someone just give me a dollar?”

I Googled around and soon discovered that the $1 came from a man who is giving $1 every single day of 2012 to a different Kickstarter project and, just as importantly, helping promote each of these projects on his website.

This has inspired me to do the same. Once a week for at least the next year, I’m going to pledge at least $5 to a documentary film project on Kickstarter that looks interesting. I’ll also help promote each of these projects on the Sourlands blog (http://www.sourlands.com/blog.html) and the Sourlands Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/Sourlands). I hope you'll steal this idea, just as I did!

SOURLANDS is getting closer to completion every day. For the past several weeks I have been focused almost entirely on editing, making revisions to the rough cut and polishing up parts that can still use some polish.

When you see SOURLANDS in a few months time, one of the characters you will meet is Mike Strizki, who lives in East Amwell in North America's first "solar-hydrogen house." Hydrogen is an expensive way to store renewable energy -- critics often say that it's so expensive that it remains a technology of the distant future -- but I read with interest today that Germany, which is making huge investments in solar and wind power, is now taking a fresh look at hydrogen as a way to store clean energy:

http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/40001/page1/

Today on Kickstarter I supported the documentary film Surviving Japan:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/survivingjapan/surviving-japan-a-documentary

It's a short dc about the aftermath of the tsunami and nuclear meltdown in Japan last year.

WHY FIVE DOLLARS?
One of the most interesting things that happened during a recent Kickstarter fundraising campaign for my own film, SOURLANDS, is that someone pledged $1. I remember opening up my email and thinking “Why did someone just give me a dollar?”

I Googled around and soon discovered that the $1 came from a man who is giving $1 every single day of 2012 to a different Kickstarter project and, just as importantly, helping promote each of these projects on his website.

This has inspired me to do the same. Once a week for at least the next year, I’m going to pledge at least $5 to a documentary film project on Kickstarter that looks interesting. I’ll also help promote each of these projects on the Sourlands blog (http://www.sourlands.com/blog.html) and the Sourlands Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/Sourlands). I hope you'll steal this idea, just as I did!

Today on Kickstarter I supported the film project, Folk to Folk:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/folktofolk/folk-to-folk?play=1&ref=users

It’s a short documentary by three young filmmakers about young folk musicians today. Somebody in the trailer says, “I think in times like these, people want something real.” The trailer for this documentary has that feel to it: authenticity.

WHY FIVE DOLLARS?
One of the most interesting things that happened during a recent Kickstarter fundraising campaign for my own film, SOURLANDS, is that someone pledged $1. I remember opening up my email and thinking “Why did someone just give me a dollar?”

I Googled around and soon discovered that the $1 came from a man who is giving $1 every single day of 2012 to a different Kickstarter project and, just as importantly, helping promote each of these projects on his website.

This has inspired me to do the same. Once a week for at least the next year, I’m going to pledge at least $5 to a documentary film project on Kickstarter that looks interesting. I’ll also help promote each of these projects on the Sourlands blog (http://www.sourlands.com/blog.html) and the Sourlands Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/Sourlands). I hope you'll steal this idea, just as I did!

Today I pledged $5 to support the Kickstarter campaign of a new documentary film titled Return of the River, about the undamming (or is it undamning?) of the Elwha River in Washington State. According to the write-up, "In a world of grim news about the environment, the return of the Elwha River is a rare success story. It is a story with global ramifications, exploring the complex relationship between people and the land they call home."

Here's the link:

http://kck.st/yo0jyA

WHY FIVE DOLLARS?
One of the most interesting things that happened during a recent Kickstarter fundraising campaign for my own film, SOURLANDS, is that someone pledged $1. I remember opening up my email and thinking “Why did someone just give me a dollar?”

I Googled around and soon discovered that the $1 came from a man who is giving $1 every single day of 2012 to a different Kickstarter project and, just as importantly, helping promote each of these projects on his website.

This has inspired me to do the same. Once a week for at least the next year, I’m going to pledge at least $5 to a documentary film project on Kickstarter that looks interesting. I’ll also help promote each of these projects on the Sourlands blog (http://www.sourlands.com/blog.html) and the Sourlands Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/Sourlands). I hope you'll steal this idea, just as I did!

Today I pledged $5 to support the Kickstarter campaign of the documentary, "A Defiant Dude." The story seems simple enough: The defiant dude is a guy from Vermont who makes T-shirts that say "Eat More Kale." The dude was told to cease and desist by Chick-fil-A, which claims he was infringing on their "Eat Mor Chikin" campaign. The dude decided to resist instead. Here's the trailer:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1674889308/a-defiant-dude?ref=live

Interested in the struggle over copyright laws and the freedom to use and build on ideas? Here's another interesting film to check out:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/88782/rip-a-remix-manifesto

WHY FIVE DOLLARS?
One of the most interesting things that happened during a recent Kickstarter fundraising campaign for my own film, SOURLANDS, is that someone pledged $1. I remember opening up my email and thinking “Why did someone just give me a dollar?”

I Googled around and soon discovered that the $1 came from a man who is giving $1 every single day of 2012 to a different Kickstarter project and, just as importantly, helping promote each of these projects on his website.

This has inspired me to do the same. Once a week for at least the next year, I’m going to pledge at least $5 to a documentary film project on Kickstarter that looks interesting. I’ll also help promote each of these projects on the Sourlands blog (http://www.sourlands.com/blog.html) and the Sourlands Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/Sourlands). I hope you'll steal this idea, just as I did!

Today I pledged $25 to the Kickstarter campaign for the upcoming documentary film BIG FAT MOUNTAIN:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bigfatmountain/big-fat-mountain

This film is about a woman named Kara Richardson Whitely, of Summit, New Jersey, who climbed Mount Kilimanjaro despite struggling with the challenge of weighing 300 pounds.  Kara was a colleague of mine at my first job out of college: working as a reporter at the Courier News in Bridgewater. Good luck Kara!

THE IDEA:

One of the interesting things that happened during a Kickstarter fundraising campaign for my own film, SOURLANDS, is that someone pledged $1. I remember opening up my email and thinking “Why did someone just give me a dollar?”

I Googled around and soon discovered that the $1 came from a man who is giving $1 every single day of 2012 to a different Kickstarter project and, just as importantly, helping promote each of these projects on his website.

This has inspired me to do the same. Once a week for at least the next year, I’m going to pledge at least $5 to a documentary film project on Kickstarter that looks interesting. I’ll also help promote each of these projects on the Sourlands blog (http://www.sourlands.com/blog.html) and the Sourlands Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/Sourlands). I hope you'll stead this idea!

Today on Kickstarter, I pledged $10 to support the documentary film Barzan, about an Iraqi immigrant to the United States who was deported after getting linked to an Al-Qaeda operative. There’s some controversy about his guilt or innocence. What intrigues me about this film (at least based on the trailer) is that it appears to be a serious work of investigative journalism, with no presumption of guilt or innocence on the part of the filmmakers.  Here’s the link:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cassidyd/barzan-the-movie

I recently watched If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, which is now up for an Academy Award for best documentary. It dealt with some of the same complex issues, in this case involving domestic terrorism. I thought the filmmakers did a great job with the balancing act these types of stories often require. Recommended.

What Am I Up To: Through Kickstarter, I’m pledging at least $5 each week to a different documentary film project for an entire year. Kickstarter really works – it made possible my latest film, SOURLANDS. Through these blog posts and small donations, I hope to help promote some other worthy documentary film projects.

We made it! I would like to offer my sincere thanks to the 89 people on Kickstarter who helped fund the post-production of SOURLANDS, the 103 people who helped fund the production phase earlier in the year, and many others who have contributed to the project in countless ways. It feels wonderful this afternoon to know that I can eat, sleep and drink SOURLANDS for the next several months and not have to worry about fundraising.

One of the most interesting things that happened during this fundraising campaign is that someone pledged $1. I remember opening up my email and thinking “Why did someone just give me a dollar?”

I Googled around and soon discovered that the $1 came from a man who is giving $1 every single day of 2012 to a different Kickstarter project and, just as importantly, helping promote each of these projects on his website.

This has inspired me to do the same. Once a week for at least the next year, I’m going to pledge $5 to a documentary film project on Kickstarter that looks interesting. I’ll also help promote each of these projects on the Sourlands blog (http://www.sourlands.com/blog.html) and the Sourlands Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/Sourlands)

For my first donations, I cruised Kickstarter last night and chose two projects that both look compelling. The first is a film titled “The End of a Marvelous Era.” A group of San Francisco State University film school graduates plan to travel across the country and document what’s left of the Big Band music scene in this country. I especially liked that the mom of one of the filmmakers left a really nice message for him on the comments page:

“I'm stirred by your talent and inspired by your commitment. We simply MUST make this project happen! I love you, Son. Mom”

Here’s the link to the “End of a Marvelous Era Kickstarter” campaign: http://kck.st/AvNMFA

The second film I donated to is titled “Of Two Minds.” It documents the highs and lows of people living with bipolar disorder – as over 5 million Americans do. The trailer is intense but very well done.

Here’s the link to the “Of Two Minds” Kickstarter campaign:
http://kck.st/x0EXZx

And finally…

GASLAND director Josh Fox was arrested yesterday while attempting to film a House Science subcommittee hearing on the EPA’s investigation into groundwater contamination in Pavillion, Wyo., potentially caused by hydraulic fracturing:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0212/72326.html

According to the article, Josh had gone through the proper channels to try to get official credentials to be there to film... and was denied. Also, there were no other broadcast journalists in the room.

I like this quote in the article from Josh:

“They came to us and said, ‘You’re in violation of House rules.’ I told them, ‘You’re in violation of the rules of the United States of America, which is the Constitution.”