Family can come with a lot of baggage, good and bad. Our latest crowdfunding picks examine all the complications of our familial relationships — the ones we choose and the ones we don’t — ranging from grappling with bereavement to handling the culture clash between first-generation immigrant parents and their children.
“The Widows Club,” directed by Crystal Avila Floeder, explores the experiences of familial loss and mourning in its depiction of six elderly Mexican women helping each other through the loss of their husbands via monthly meetings.
Marina Barham’s short “Breakfast at the Bodega” follows Basil, a talented Palestinian-American Brooklynite as he attempts to follow his dreams and become a pastry chef, against the wishes of his first-generation father.
In “The Hornbeck,” writer-director Allex Tarr brings to life the night her grandparents decided to elope from Shawnee, Oklahoma, and their unhappy family lives.
Here are Women and Hollywood’s latest women-created and women-centric crowdfunding picks.
“The Widows Club” (Short Documentary) – Directed by Crystal Avila Floeder
After the passing of her husband, Maria found a vessel for her mourning in the form of monthly lunches with her widowed friends. “The Widows Club” follows six women, all of whom emigrated with their spouses from Mexico to Chicago around the same time and primarily speak Spanish, as they navigate the loss of their husbands and help each other continue to live meaningful lives through stories, laughter, and friendship. Above all, they attempt to live by their club’s “Ten Commandments to Live Happily in Your Old Age,” or “Diez Mandamientos para una Vejez Feliz.”
“Mourning is a very personal experience. It is often impacted and affected by culture, belief systems, life experiences, and very specifically by personality,” director Crystal Avila Floeder explains on the project’s Seed&Spark campaign page. “My next film will explore the dynamics and intersections of this phenomenon and how a personal encounter with mourning and suffering can reveal and highlight aspects of this universal human experience.”
“The Widows Club” is crowdfunding for production and post-production costs, as well as submission fees for festivals. It will film in summer 2020, and features a primarily female and Hispanic cast and crew.
You can help fund “The Widows Club” by donating to its Seed&Spark campaign.
“Breakfast at the Bodega” (Short) – Directed by Marina Barham
Basil, the eldest son in a Palestinian-American family based in Brooklyn, has lofty dreams of becoming a pastry chef. He has the talent: as an excellent chef deeply inspired by French cuisine, his pastries remind people of their happiest memories. But as the family continues to struggle with the recent death of his mother, he comes into conflict with his father, a first-generation immigrant who does not want him to leave his family’s bodega for culinary school. When Basil gets his first big gig and struggles to fulfill it, his father forbids him from using the bodega to cook.
With “Breakfast at the Bodega,” director Marina Barham hopes to depict Brooklyn from an often underrepresented Middle Eastern point of view, as well as explore the intersection of culture and family and the impact of immigration.
“I have spent my whole life learning how to best understand my dad despite growing up in a completely different culture,” she says on the short’s Seed&Spark campaign. “That dynamic both challenges me and teaches me so much about the world. I want to dive into that experience and show how two people from the same family can experience the world in completely different ways.”
“Breakfast at the Bodega” celebrates a team of primarily female filmmakers and a diverse cast and crew, and is crowdfunding primarily for location costs, a camera team, cast, sound, and catering. Contributing to the film will help support freelance and local artists and creatives, particularly in the uncertain times of COVID-19.
Find out how to help “Breakfast at the Bodega” by visiting its Seed&Spark campaign.
“The Hornbeck” (Short) – Written and Directed by Allex Tarr
In 1950, in the dusty town of Shawnee, Oklahoma, writer-director Allex Tarr’s grandparents made the decision to elope. As they walked back from their midnight showing at the Hornbeck Theater, Delores asked Johnny to run away with her, so both of them could escape their abusive homes. She was living under the threat of being sent to finishing school on account of not being “ladylike” enough and a physically abusive father, and he was too poor to even afford shoes. “The Hornbeck” is Tarr’s cinematic reimagining of that night — and the magical, dusty, nostalgic town it took place in.
“The Hornbeck” is a recreation of romance and nostalgia, but it is also a story of female agency and finding family. Tarr explains on the project’s campaign page, “I want to tell this story because I want to bring Delores’s spirit to life on screen; I want to show that oftentimes the coolest women are the ones who don’t follow the status quo; I want to remind women, myself included, that there is always a way out of an abusive situation — even if it doesn’t feel that way. It’s even better if the way out is love.”
The project will film on-location in Shawnee during the final week of April 2020, and is crowdfunding to hire local camera crew, catering, and hair and makeup, as well as to source final props and an editor for post-production. As a female filmmaker, Tarr is committed to a crew that is female-dominated and inclusive of filmmakers from LGBTQ+ and POC communities.
Help make “The Hornbeck” a reality by donating via Seed&Spark.
To be considered for Women and Hollywood’s biweekly crowdfunding feature, please write to waheditorialfellows@gmail.com. All formats (features, shorts, web series, etc.) are welcome. Projects must be by and/or about women.
