Nisha Pahuja
The film: Presented by Anurag Kashyap and directed by Nisha Pahuja, The World Before Her juxtaposes young women at the Durga Vahini camp and the Miss India Pageant.
Target: 50,000 Canadian dollars
Amount raised: Over 57,000 Canadian dollars
Motive: Money raised will help screen the film across India at educational institutions and to social workers.
Nisha Pahuja who divides her time between Canada and India, says, “When I began making the film, a few international broadcasters in Toronto showed interest. However, I realised it is not easy to find finance for feature-length documentaries,” she says. Nisha felt the need to approach cinema-viewing public for help at a later stage. “I thought of a campaign on kickstarter.com to take the film to a wider audience. Theatrical release is one aspect. I want to screen this film across India to people who may not have access to it, like human rights groups that work to prevent female infanticide,” she reasons.
Surbhi Dewan and Mara Ahmed
The film:Partition Stories documents the memories of families torn by Partition.
Target: $ 12,000
Amount raised: surpassed the target
Motive: The money will be used for postproduction of the film
Surbhi was studying in the US when she met Mara and they decided to make this film. Partition Stories was shot over a few years, with Mara shooting the footage whenever she visited her hometown Lahore for holidays and Surbhi was in Delhi for vacation. “We both are independent filmmakers. At one point, we decided to demarcate our roles. So Mara looked after direction and I the production. The film has both our voices and that of our families,” says Surbhi.
Mara intended to release the film in New York, have screenings in universities and then a DVD release. Surbhi wanted to reach a wider audience. They pooled in money to make the film, but crowdfunding was necessary to edit the film. “We were overwhelmed when people not only contributed but also shared their memories of Partition,” says Surbhi.
Nandita Das publicised their cause on social network sites and a Pakistani artist allowed them to use his art work in the film. “The advantage of crowdfunding is getting support from ordinary people who believe in your work and the filmmaker has complete creative control,” she emphasises.
Anand Gandhi and team
The film:Proposition for a Revolution is a documentary on the rise of Aam Aadmi Party, trailing Arvind Kejriwal and his close associates as the revolution gained momentum and Kejriwal became the chief minister of Delhi. Made by Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla (co-writer of Ship of Theseus ), the film is produced by Anand Gandhi (director of Ship of Theseus ).
Target: Rs. 12,00,000
Motive: Though Anand Gandhi and IDFA Bertha Fund have pooled in money, it is not enough to complete the project. Money raised will help in making the rough cut of the film.
The film tracks the journey of AAP since its inception to fighting the elections in Delhi in December 2013. The makers shot over 400 hours of footage and were even privy to some of the party meetings.
“Our film is a documentary set in contemporary politics and investors didn't find it an interesting proposition. Those interested in investing wanted to know if we were supporting AAP or against it,” says Vinay Shukla. Not wanting to compromise the neutral stand of their film, the team opted for crowd funding.
Khushboo agrees that Anand's presence in the team added to their credibility. The team achieved the crowd funding target and with more people writing in to www.prop4rev.com, they decided to keep the funds coming in.
The advantage of crowd funding, as she sees it, lies in film-loving people taking ownership of the documentary. "Some people pledged money, others skills, while a few others simply shared the details of the film with friends," says Khushboo. All this, she hopes, will translate to wide viewership when the film releases.
