About this project
***UPDATE***
We're almost there, at least for this round of funding! That's not to say that we won't take your hard-earned dollars over the $5000 mark -- to be sure, the actual budget will end up be significantly higher, not counting our sanity and our credit history. So as we enter the home stretch, thanks again for your continued support, and thanks for all the pledges! Keep 'em coming -- I'm not busking outside the BART yet, but I will if it means I can get this movie done!
Mike
More about 'Smut" We're raising money to pay for footage for our documentary about 'the Smut Capital of America' -- San Francisco in the late 60s and early 70s -- and we need your help!
While researching a project on pornographer-philanthropist Chuck Holmes, we came across a 1971 NYTimes article on the city, and on then-Supervisor Dianne Feinstein's attempt to clean it up. We've been talking to people who were there -- porno house operators, models, filmmakers -- from San Francisco's Tenderloin, trying to figure out how porn came out of the closet, and why it happened in San Francisco.
We're close to finishing the project -- in fact, the interviews are complete and we've pieced together a clip from our 15 minute opus above -- but the footage that we need to use to tell the story is very expensive. Much of that footage from that era is on old 16mm reels which costs a lot of money to reconstitute and digitize. And rights to other footage, like news footage, can cost up to $150 PER SECOND. Even the rights to photos cost money.
The fifteen minute short will screen at festivals this winter, but only if we're able to raise the money to pay for the footage. We're making deals to get discounts on this footage now and are paying for it out of pocket as well, but we still need more than $7,500 to make our actual budget. Help us excavate one of the forgotten sites from the Sexual Revolution -- San Francisco's Tenderloin.
Getting Our Rocks Off: A Historical Perspective (SF Bay Guardian)
http://www.sfbg.com/sexsf/2010/09/27/getting-our-rocks-historical-perspective
SF Lovingly Called "Smut Capital of America"
http://sfist.com/2010/09/30/san_francisco_was_once_lovingly_cal.php>
San Francisco: The Real Smut Capital? (Violet Blue's Open Source Sex)
http://www.tinynibbles.com/blogarchives/2010/09/san-francisco-the-real-smut-capital-of-america.html
A Historical Look at Hardcore (The Sword)
http://www.thesword.com/index.php/all-stories/42-depts/3990-a-historical-look-at-hardcore-porn.html
Mike
FAQ
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Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on November 4, 2010.
Pledge $15 or more Pledge $15 or more
Our dossier of articles, including the Porn Capital of America article that inspired the piece, from NY Times, SF Chronicle, The Berkeley Barb, Playboy and others about San Francisco's role as the center of porn in America in the late 60s and early 70s.
Pledge $20 or more Pledge $20 or more
A digital copy of the finished short, Smut Capital of America (delivered right to your in-box without FBI interference).
Pledge $25 or more Pledge $25 or more
The articles above, as well as a copy of the full short once footage has been paid for.
Pledge $100 or more Pledge $100 or more
Special Thanks credit, as well as all of the above.
Pledge $150 or more Pledge $150 or more
Invitation to the SF Premiere of 'Smut Capital' as well as the above.
Pledge $500 or more Pledge $500 or more
Associate Producer Credit and a night out with the filmmakers in the Tenderloin, plus all of the above and our undying appreciation.
Project By
Connected as Mike Stabile (742 friends)
Michael Stabile is a journalist and filmmaker best-known for his work in and about the adult film industry. His work has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Huffington Post, LA Weekly, the Village Voice and the San Francisco Bay Guardian.
In 2011, Stabile, along with partners Ben Leon and Jack Shamama, produced SMUT CAPITAL OF AMERICA, a Kickstarter-funded documentary short about the birth of the porn industry in the late 60s. SMUT CAPITAL premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2011, won Best Documentary Short at NewFest, and inspired an an eight-week restrospective of vintage San Francisco 'smut' at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
SEED MONEY is the filmmakers' first documentary feature.
