Kickstarter

THE FAMOUS JOE PROJECT is a feature film about a young gay man who records everything he does on a hand-held flip camera -- including his experiences coming out to his family, falling in love, and trying to make a film with his friend Jesus.  It's based on a short film I made about five years ago, though the character of Famous Joe has been in different stories and scripts I've written over the last ten years, since the first original screenplay I ever wrote.

The cast and crew are pretty amazing -- I want to give special mention to Shannon Triplett, my producer, and both Alexandria Cree and Laura Holloway, associate producers as well as playing key roles in the cast.  I'm very grateful for all the incredible actors that joined us on the movie, more than I can name here -- including Joey Capone (Carlos Spills the Beans), Ary Katz (J. Edgar), Pollyanna McIntosh (The Woman), Craig Gilmore (The Living End, Totally F***ed Up), Laura Holloway (The Black Belle), Robin Riker (The Bold and the Beautiful, Thunder Alley), and Bill Oberst Jr (The Secret Life of Bees, The Shunning). Check out our website for bios on everyone involved.

We've finished shooting the film, but we need money to finish the post-production.  Your funding will be used for final color correction, sound mix, publicity, and legal fees -- including music licensing.  This is not the most glamorous part of filmmaking (except for color correction, which is sort of glamorous, but it doesn't sound glamorous) but it is important for us to finish our film and bring it to audiences.

And the big news!  We just found out that we have been accepted to Outfest 2012 in Los Angeles.  It's one of the biggest LGBT film festivals in the world, and our premiere is weeks away.  So this really "puts a clock on it," as they say.  You can already buy tickets for the first screening and the movie is not finished...

This is a personal film with a tiny budget -- what those in the entertainment industry call "a labor of love" or a "passion project." Is this because the rest of the industry is a dispassionate labor of money? All I know is you better love it if you're going to make a low-budget feature, because you will have to work your butt off. I had made short films before -- this feature is based on a short film that played at Outfest and Slamdance in 2007 and won Best International Short at the Lisbon International Digital Cinema Festival -- but nothing could prepare me for the sheer force of will required to bring a feature film into being.

The movie itself is a love story, but it's also a movie about making movies, about growing up, and about learning to be yourself. I think it is a perfect project to bring to kickstarter. I hope you all will agree.

Check out the rewards offered with your contribution -- if we don't make our goal of $7500 then no money will exchange hands and you won't get your prize.  So please post, post, and repost and get the word out about our film.  And thank you for your support!

And please like us on facebook...

Here is a picture of the orange shirt -- see reward list to the right.  These are limited edition collectibles, not available anywhere else.  The text reads: "Kindly do needful in another way."

And here is the official trailer for the film, which is available for download on our website:

Please share and spread the word!