Friday 21st August 2015
Crowdfunding has been getting a lot of attention in the news lately, and with good reason. We even discussed the practice in more detail earlier this month, so take a look back if you want a deeper look at it. As far as funding models go, it's often a bit difficult to find something that could rightly be called revolutionary - and while crowdfunding isn't exactly a new principle, the ease with which it can now be used by just about anyone in the world (remember the practical joker who raised $50,000 to make potato salad?) is certainly revolutionary.
It's not just tech startups and internet trolls that are making use of modern crowdfunding platforms, however. Legendary surrealist filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky is going to be crowdfunding his newest film, which is entitled 'Endless Poetry' (Poesía Sin Fin). The funding goal is a remarkably conservative $150,000, which puts to shame all the ridiculously overblown budgets that Hollywood is known for. In the first six days, the project had already raised over $42,000 USD, which is fairly impressive in and of itself.
The film itself is going to be centered on the life of the artist as a young man, growing up in Santiago, Chile, and his search for beauty in the world, surrounded by some of the most influential artists in his young life. After the spectacular and widely-publicised failure of the incredible and epic version of Dune that Jodorowsky created, it's perfectly understandable that he's grown extremely frustrated with the classic methods of funding movies.
“How can an auteur survive with American cinema’s colonization of the entire world? We are slaves to the economy, then we go to the cinema to distract ourselves for an hour and a half, and when we leave, we become constricted once again. Nothing has changed in our lives. A true piece of art has to change the very spirit of people. When I go to a theater, I should exist a different person. The movie must give me something—hope, knowledge, a hidden beauty kept inside that I didn’t even know was there.”
Now that would certainly revive flagging movie sales. Here's hoping his latest film will be just as surrealistically magical as the films he is best known for.
Posted on August 21st 2015 on 06:44pm