Kickstarter

***UPDATE***

Wow. In less than 2 weeks, we reached our goal of $3,000! A huge thank you goes out to everyone who pledged or supported us by spreading the word! I speak for all of us when I say we’ve been extremely humbled by your generosity.

So what happens now? The Kickstarter won’t end until March 30th at midnight. What we’ve raised so far will get us to San Francisco, but it doesn’t cover any of the costs of editing, film festival submissions, or duplication costs.

Why keep donating?

***If we reach $4,000, we’ll send each and every one of you a personalized postcard from San Francisco!

***If we reach $5,000, we’ll send each and every one of you a personalized video postcard (via email) that we’ll shoot in San Francisco!

THE PROJECT:

Leather Queen tells the story of Tamale’s journey as she prepares to compete in one of the most deviant beauty pageants in the nation: International Ms Leather (IMsL). Tamale, with her own brand of humor and genuine warmth, provides a look into the BDSM subculture in a playful manner that attempts to both delight and educate. IMsL is a competition that takes place every year in San Francisco where kinky contestants battle it out to take home the coveted title (and sexy leather sash) of International Ms Leather.

The documentary will explore the leather and BDSM communities by focusing on the emotional experience, trust, and honesty, and more specifically Tamale's relationship to it. By drawing comparisons between IMsL and traditional beauty pageants, we hope to make the topics more accessible while also keeping the level of play high, reminding folks that having fun can look like a lot of different things!

THE PEOPLE:

Tamale has been performing burlesque and honing her comedy skills in Chicago for the last 10 years. As an interdisciplinary artist, she draws from a wide variety of mediums, creating original installations and commanding performances that explore gender, ritual, and social themes. C. Byrne has been working as a videographer in advertising for the last 6 years. She has made several short films and is excited to work on her first documentary. Nadia Oussenko is a filmmaker with a passion for dance for the camera. She has made several dance films as well as a documentary titled My Name is a Blackbird.

THE PLEA:

Nadia and I are working hard in the early production phase here in Chicago. But the competition itself takes place in San Francisco in April and we really need your help to get there! $3,000 is the bare minimum we need for travel expenses. Your contribution will go directly towards:

-Flying ourselves and our equipment to San Francisco

-A place to sleep

-Equipment rental for the things too impractical to travel with

-Portable hard drives

ABOUT KICKSTARTER:

When will my credit card be charged?

Your credit card will be charged only when the Kickstarter ends and only if it ends successfully.

When will I get my reward?

If we reach our goal of $3,000, some of the rewards will be available immediately. The Early to Bed coupons will be emailed to those eligible right away so you can get shopping (US customers only)! Every time we upload new content to our youtube channel, we'll send out an email with the unlisted link. Unlisted means that the only way to see the video is have a direct link to it, but you don't need a youtube account to view it. Things like posters, film credits, and tickets to the private screening are a little more up in the air since that requires finishing the documentary. We're going to be working hard to get it done as soon as we can, but don't want to put a specific date on it. But we promise to get those rewards out as soon as possible!

What happens if you don't reach your goal of $3,000?

Nothing! The project won't be funded and we'll go cry in the corner. The beauty of Kickstarter is knowing that your donation will only go towards a project that gets enough funding to do what they say they're going to do.

What if you go over $3,000?

$3,000 will get us to San Francisco, but anything above and beyond that will go towards post-production expenses such as editing, film festival submission fees and distribution costs.

*Leather Queen is a working title and may change at any time*