The Film
JAMES WHITE, the new feature film from filmmaking trio Borderline Films (Afterschool, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Simon Killer), stars Christopher Abbott in a frenetic coming of age story about a young New Yorker struggling to take control of his reckless, self destructive behavior in the face of momentous family challenges.
The purpose of this film is to explore a really rich, close relationship between a single mother and her son. It's now being brought to life by an amazing cast, starring Christopher Abbot (Girls, Martha Marcy May Marlene), Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi (How to Make It in America, Need For Speed), Tony & Emmy Award Winner Cynthia Nixon (Sex and the City, Rabbit Hole), Ron Livingston (Office Space, Drinking Buddies), David Call (Tiny Furniture, Smash), and Mackenzie Leigh (The Good Wife, Deception).
Who We Are
Our production company, Borderline Films, is made up of three filmmakers, Josh Mond, Antonio Campos, and Sean Durkin. Ten years after founding Borderline as film students at NYU, our feature films have played at the Cannes Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, New York Film Festival, and Toronto International Film Festival, been nominated for five Independent Spirit Awards, four Gotham Awards, and won Best Director at Sundance (Sean Durkin for Martha Marcy May Marlene).
To support each other in achieving our goal of making our first features on our own terms, to keep them as personal and honest as possible, we rotate roles in the filmmaking process. When one of us writes and directs, the other two produce, and we all support each other creatively and financially. If someone needs time to work on a script, the other two will direct commercials and split the money three ways.
James White, Borderline’s first feature with Josh Mond as director, finishes the cycle of debut features we initially set out to make, now ten years ago. We’ve officially wrapped production, and now, hopefully, is where you are able to come in.
Why We Need Your Help
Now that the film is shot, we need additional funds in order to get through post-production. These costs include paying for an editor and edit space, sound design and mixing, and securing music rights. These people are kind enough to give us lower rates and donate a lot of their time.
- We're incredibly excited to have Scott "Kid Cudi" Mescudi working on the score of the film.
- Matt Hannam, the award winning editor of Denis Villeneuve's Enemy with Jake Gyllenhaal and Antiviral by Brandon Cronenberg, has come on to edit the film.
- Coll Anderson, the sound designer on Borderline's Martha Marcy May Marlene and Simon Killer as well as Catfish and many others is starting work in his Woodstock studio.
- And finally Randall Poster, the incredibly prolific music supervisor who has done everything from Kids to all of Wes Anderson's films and Scorsese's Wolf of Wall Street, is starting his work of trying lock in the tracks Josh wants for the soundtrack.
Kickstarter Campaign in collaboration with Relic Pictures and Jeff Schwartz.
Risks and challenges
You never know what lies ahead for an indie feature. At this point, we can’t honestly know which company will distribute it, or what festival it will premiere at. In the past, we’ve been very fortunate and our features have premiered at Sundance or Cannes and been distributed by IFC Films or Fox Searchlight. Our first feature, Afterschool, directed by Antonio Campos, premiered at Cannes in 2008. It was distributed by IFC Films and nominated for Best First Feature at the Independent Spirit Awards and Breakthrough Director at the Gotham Awards. Next came Sean Durkin’s Martha Marcy May Marlene, which premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, where Sean Durkin won the prize for Best Director. That film was distributed by Fox Searchlight and was nominated for three Gotham Awards and four Independent Spirit Awards. Two Gates of Sleep, Alistair Banks Griffin's feature which Borderline produced, debuted at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival in Director's Fortnight. Antonio’s next feature, Simon Killer, premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, where it was one of the most discussed and debated films in competition, and was distributed afterwards by IFC Films.
So right now, as with all our films, we are just making sure we’re telling this story as passionately and truthfully as we can. Anyone who’s made a film knows that this is an enormous challenge, and after ten years together, and having nearly completed our cycle of debut features, it’s one we’re extremely excited to tackle.
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Funding period
- (30 days)