Flip through one of your old photo albums. How does it feel? Regardless of the time period you are looking back on, you’re probably experiencing a fairly strong emotional response. Maybe it’s nostalgia for simpler times, or embarrassment thinking back on those awkward pre-teen years when braces were the bane of your existence. Growing up is tough for everyone, and rarely do we escape it without a few bumps, bruises, and lessons learned. For some, those lessons are more painful than others.
This round of crowdfunding picks highlights the forces that push us to grow up faster than we planned. Whether it is fiction or reality, each story focuses on a young woman making her way through a tough transition in her life, battling class, culture, and circumstance.
In the docu-short “Ashley’s Story” we get a glimpse into the experience of a young woman in high school, who imagines all the possibilities her future offers, while also contending with her family’s economic security.
Sogol Afshar’s “Dorreh” is a dark imagining of a preteen girl’s insecurities as a result of being “othered,” and the lengths she will go in order to fit in.
And finally, “Kaylee Age 8” is a magical realistic telling of an autistic girl’s experiences after she loses her mother.
Here are the latest women-created and women-centric crowdfunding picks from Women and Hollywood.
“Ashley’s Story” (Documentary Short) – Directed by Emily Cohen Ibañez
The national dialogue around immigration might be on the forefront of our minds given today’s political climate, but oftentimes the personal can get lost in this broader discourse. “Ashley’s Story” zooms in on this conversation, and examines the personal impact our cultural framework has on immigrant communities.
In this documentary short, we follow high school senior Ashley Solis, of Watsonville, California. Ashley works hard in school and has dreams of becoming the first in her family to graduate high school and go to college. And while many other high school students might spend their senior year preoccupied with applying to universities and looking forward to prom and graduation, Ashley has quite a bit more on her plate. She spends her time working in the strawberry fields of Watsonville in order to help support her family financially.
But despite the difficulties she has faced, in the strawberry fields and beyond, Ashley is also a champion of her community. She recently collaborated with friends and neighbors to take back city land for a garden, to help champion the area Latinx farm workers. Director Emily Cohen Ibañez, a daughter of immigrants herself, has been following Ashley since her freshman year of high school. Cohen Ibañez hopes Ashley’s story will spotlight important issues in the upcoming midterm elections. The campaign states, “We aim to spark a public discussion about food security, housing affordability, and youth activism as well as a feminist dialogue about how working conditions intersect with family obligations and gender expectations for teen women laborers on the Central Coast of California and beyond.”
Learn more about Ashley and her story, and donate to the film’s campaign on Seed & Spark.
“Dorreh” (Short) – Written and Directed by Sogol Afshar
Being a teenage girl is hard to begin with. And it becomes even more difficult when you are straddling two cultural identities, feeling like you belong in neither. “Dorreh” takes on this identity crisis by exploring the deep psychological effects of not fitting in. In this short, a 12-year-old Dorreh turns to self-harm, attempting to cut off her unibrow. The story also explores Dorreh’s relationship with her mother, before and after this traumatic experience.
British-Iranian filmmaker Sogol Afshar based “Dorreh” on her own story. In the campaign she explains, “Dorreh is an autobiographical film that’s very close to my own experience as a teenage Persian girl when I first moved to England. Years later, after being exposed to the issue of self-mutilation amongst teenagers in the media, I decided to merge the two worlds in order to tell a very personal mother-daughter love story.” With a background in short fiction and documentary films, Afshar plans to use her creativity and narrative voice to helm a compelling drama.
Donate to “Dorreh” on Indiegogo.
“Kaylee Age 8” – Directed by Molly Coffee; Written by Molly Coffee and Chuck Thomas
“Kaylee Age 8” is about a young eight-year-old girl who goes on a journey after the sudden and unexpected passing of her mother. Kaylee, who has autism, often envisioned her mother as a mermaid and now, after her passing, wants to spread her mother’s ashes in the river. Her trip to the river turns into an adventure, during which she meets a cast of one-of-a-kind characters who help her deal with her grief in different ways.
The story is told from Kaylee’s perspective, and is infused with elements of magical realism, including her drawings, which come to life and help shed light on how she sees the world. The script for this feature was a finalist in the 2017 Sundance Screenwriters Lab, and is an opportunity to portray a character we rarely see on-screen. On the film’s campaign page, director Molly Coffee explains, “When I saw ‘Wonder Woman’ the film, I cried all of the way through it. The reason was because I saw on the screen the power of a female role model and the gravity that would hold for an entire generation of girls. Everyone deserves to see themselves represented in hero form.”
Help bring “Kaylee Age 8” to life by donating on the Seed & Spark platform.
To be considered for Women and Hollywood’s biweekly crowdfunding feature, please write to womenandhollywoodinterns@gmail.com. All formats (features, shorts, web series, etc.) welcome. Projects must be by and/or about women.
