Kickstarter

Through an intimate portrait of one family in the Iranian diaspora (mine), "People You Think You Know" studies how the Iran / US conflict is a result of two cultures' inability to communicate.

I have been shooting footage, editing and developing the website for the project over the past 2 1/2 years. You can see my progress so far at PeopleYouThinkYouKnow.com ~ there are already several sequences (about 40 minutes of material) for you to watch as I continue to work on PYTYK. Ultimately, using those sequences, I will be putting together a feature-length documentary. In the meantime, you will be privy to the making of a full-length 90 (or so) minute movie. A movie which you can also help shape with your feedback.

Thus far this project has survived as a labor of love between freelance gigs I use to support myself. However, as I've now collected over 150 hours of footage, and will probably need much more…things are starting to get serious. The movie needs more attention to take it to the next step. There are:

- tens of hours of footage already waiting to be digitized and organized
- more interviews to be conducted
- expenses to be covered -- (since the June 2009 election, another trip to Iran has become absolutely essential, while more tape stock, hard drive space, etc. seems always in short supply)

But most of all, there are many more months needed for editing all my footage - and to carve a final narrative which (with any luck) you will like to see.

I will be using my current Kickstarter fundraising goal of $5000 to … kickstart my fundraising. The ultimate budget to finish the movie will be quite a bit higher, however I will use your generous Kickstarter support to take a few months off freelancing to 1) continue keeping PeopleYouThinkYouKnow.com active and updated with news and episodes and 2) diligently pursue further funding in the way of grants.

Thank you for your time,
Alborz Kamalizad
peopleyouthinkyouknow@yahoo.com

P.S.: Please keep in mind, that if my fundraising goal is not met by the end of the fundraising period, I won't be getting a penny of your generous support! So feel free to spread the word to anyone you think may be interested in this project. Also, if you feel like you have too much stuff in your life already, you can opt out of the rewards.

P.P.S.: In case you're wondering why I'm working on this project in the first place: I'm simply interested in it. And I think you are too. See, for hundreds of thousands of years, humans have lived largely in isolation from one another - different groups of us (separated by rivers, mountains and continents) developing entirely different ways of doing everyday things like eating, making friends, dancing or dying. (What we refer to as different "cultures.") We've even come up with different ways of speaking. (These are called "languages.") Only in the last couple hundred years have we begun to make contact across these cultural divides - begun to truly grapple with a globalized planet. And naturally, like members of a broken-up family coming back together, there is a lot to learn, a lot to enjoy and a lot of conflict to overcome. Iran / U.S. relations are no exception. By examining my own ties to both cultures, I want to get a better understanding of why, sometimes, we just can't seem to get along.