We're excited to announce that after a long search, we have found a talented editor who will be working with us on Unorthodox! He has several decades of experience in cutting feature-length documentaries, and we will begin working with him in May, with an eye towards completing a final cut by the end of the summer.

In the meantime, we all took a short break from the film so that we could feel refreshed and reinvigorated for the final push. Anna went hiking in the Himalayas, Nadja went to India, and Shira paid a visit to family in the US. Here's a picture of Anna and some yaks, and Nadja in her sari.

Thanks again for your support! We'll keep you updated as we progress.

- Anna, Nadja and Shira

Thank you all for your outpouring of support over the past month!  We have less than 4 hours remaining and we're hoping for some last minute surprises that will put us at 150% of our goal.  We're thrilled to be finishing miles ahead of our initial $16k goal!  We cannot thank you enough for your financial backing, your personal endorsements and your words of encouragement.  

As a community, you have emboldened us as filmmakers and made us aware of the need for a film like Unorthodox; a film that opens up the possibility for greater dialogue about religious transformation and identity.  

As we count down the next few hours, we hope that you will be celebrating alongside us.  As we continue editing the film and gear up for festivals at the end of the year, we will be updating you all so you can follow our progress. For more frequent updates, please check out the Unorthodox Facebook page, blog, and Twitter.

We leave you with a short Youtube video of Anna asking her grandparents: "Is there a Yiddish word to describe the Unorthodox Kickstarter campaign?"   

Thank you, again!

Nadja, Anna and Shira

We cannot thank you all enough for your support over the past month.  Without you we would have never shot past our goal, and Unorthodox would not have come to the attention of the 1400+ people who have 'liked' us on Facebook!  We're really going to push the project in the last 24 hours of the campaign, so expect a few more updates as we reach the final stretch! Let's try to reach 300 backers! 

We're also up for indieWIRE's Project of the Week, so please VOTE FOR UNORTHODOX on the Facebook poll (it's really simple) and share with your friends and family! The poll closes on Tuesday Jan 17, and if we win we will receive a digital distribution consultation from SnagFilms and we will become a candidate for Project of the Month!  That winner will be awarded with a consultation from the Sundance Institute.  This is a huge opportunity!

Here's the poll (click the link in the article, which will take you to Facebook):

http://www.indiewire.com/article/vote-for-project-of-the-week-surviving-japan-naturalist-in-montauk-or-unorthodox

All the best and a million thanks!

Nadja and Anna and Shira

Last week, thanks to your amazing support, we reached 16K--which is the bare minimum we need to pay for an experienced editor.

Our campaign ends this Sunday, January 15, at 5 pm Eastern Time. We are still fundraising for the next six (and a half) days.  We have MANY more expenses that we're going to encounter (music, color correction, audio mix, licensing fees, etc) and we need all the help we can get! 

If each of you could *please* take just one minute and send two friends the Kickstarter link, we'd reach an additional 532 people. That would be HUGE and incredibly helpful. There is still time for your friends, family and colleagues to become part of Unorthodox!

For a breakdown of our upcoming costs, see our blog post "Wait, you're still fundraising? But I thought you hit your goal!" And while you're there, check out the video Chaim made for us, where he shows off the hand-painted yamulkes you can get for donating at the $75 level.

To mark this final week we'll be publishing some exciting updates on our blog: an interview with our new Associate Producer, Shira Katz; a post from Nadja about the camera/audio equipment we used during production; a video from Jake, one of the stars of Unorthodox; and a post from Anna, about the biggest mistake we made these last seven years. We'll also be posting exclusive screenshots from the film to our Facebook page.

Can we get 300 supporters?  Can we hit 20K or even 24K, which is 150% of our goal? We hope so!

Please keep spreading the word (seriously, we need your help) and thanks again for your tremendous support!

-Anna, Nadja, and Shira

It's the second day of 2012 and we just hit our goal! Wow!

Thanks to your amazing support (all 246 of you!) we will be able to pay for an editor to help us complete the film!  You guys are incredible and we can barely express how much this means to us... we are completely overwhelmed.

THANK YOU! תודה!

We still have 13 days left and any additional funds raised over our goal will go towards many other costs that we're going to have (color correction, music, audio mix, licensing fees, etc.) so please continue to spread the word.

We're looking forward to keeping you updated as the film progresses and we're excited that Kickstarter has given us the ability to connect with you at this stage of the filmmaking process.

What a great way to start the new year!

Lots of love,

- Anna, Nadja and Shira (our new Associate Producer)