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There are countless ways identity can shape a person, with countless factors that shape that identity. This month’s crowdfunding projects, whether narrative fiction or documentary, explore the...
Community can mean a host things: comfort, responsibility, representation, and identity, to name a few. The word holds undeniable power, and our communities often inform what we come to think of our...
Sometimes it feels like we are always coming of age with each new stage of life. We come of age as young people, sure, but we come of age again when our circumstances change and when we change...
As anti-LGTBQIA+ attacks ramp up all over the country, it is more important than ever to pay attention to what LGBTQ people are saying in our own words. As the freedom to discuss the very existence...
Documentary filmmakers are constantly on a journey – a journey to find the next compelling story and remarkable characters, a journey to find the truth in humanity, and, perhaps the most...
One of the things that independent cinema does best is tell stories of relationships found outside of the dominant culture. The mainstream tends to focus on romantic relationships between men and...
As the end of the year nears, the desire to examine and confront the unknown or the unfamiliar parts of our lives creeps to the front of our minds. When it comes to moving into a new point in time,...
Family dynamics are an ever-evolving part of life; a large element of understanding family is understanding our individual selves. At times, familial relationships can feel overwhelming or confusing,...
Rarely does a day pass when the life of a woman is not affected by the haunting of the trinity — that of assault, abuse, and trauma. No matter which rung of the social ladder one stands at, the...
Entering a new chapter in life feels daunting for anyone; with outside perspectives projected upon you, there can be a sense of powerlessness in the midst of change. It takes courage to claim space...
Few things are as frustrating as having your voice drowned out by someone who has not lived your experience. Oppression relies on suppressing minority voices. If you cannot share your stories, your...
Being able to relate to and see ourselves in the characters from our favorite films is not a privilege everyone can enjoy. For a long time, authentic LGBTQ+ stories were not being told in meaningful...
One of the best ways to learn about the world and its many peoples is by listening to stories. When underrepresented groups are given the chance to share — and to be heard — it can...
Sometimes, to learn who you are, you have to lose something. This can be a painful process or a joyful one, depending on what you have lost. The important thing is that, through this process, you...
Growing up, teenage life on the big screen was often too good – or too terrible – to be true. Like those as-seen-on-TV gimmicks, the selling point is enticing enough for you to buy in, but the...
You don’t have to be a daredevil to feel the exhilarating danger of tightrope walking. In fact, life often forces us to occupy roles that are incompatible with our own desires, that sometimes...
The act of healing takes many forms. From the healing of a physical trauma, to the healing that takes place within our hearts and minds, to the healing of a system — the work is never done....
Self-perception is a two-way mirror. Self-perception is how we see ourselves: all our ambitions, all our anxieties reflected plainly in the looking glass. Self-perception is also how the person on...
By Kara Headley and Vicki A. Lee This week’s crowdfunding picks are a patchwork quilt of womanhood and girlhood, a vibrant assemblage of characters who are either coming of age or undergoing...
This round of crowdfunding explores the stakes of our interconnectivity and the imperatives of creating ethical and accountable intimate relationships. Whether immersing viewers in familial...
Everybody thinks they could use a hero now and again. However, the enshrined out-of-this-world idol dreamed up to cure all that ails often fizzles away in the face of reality. Super humans...
This round of crowdfunding picks shares a focus on representing and tackling a range of intersecting social and cultural issues. They rely on humor, fantasy, and, of course, Zoom, to address the...
What is art for in a fraught time, if not to serve as a template for those difficult conversations that are rarely introduced simply or without fuss at the dinner table? Though the best fiction may...
Current overlapping cultural, political, and economic realities seem to necessitate additional doses of care-taking and truth-telling as we navigate, and in some cases, resist, creating a new normal....
By Tatiana McInnis and Shayna Maci Warner This round of crowdfunding picks offers reflections and representations of gender identity, environmentalism in a crumbling world, and how climate change...
By Shayna Maci Warner and Tatiana McInnis For many marginalized storytellers, the absences of their identities within the Hollywood canon can only be combatted by creating independent content....
Remembering the things that connect us and bring us together, as well as committing to honest conversation with each other — even when the topic is difficult — has never been more...
It’s more important than ever to support underrepresented voices and viewpoints in film — whether they focus on fact or fiction. Our latest round of crowdfunding picks each highlight...
When it comes to love, things don’t always work out as smoothly as we’d like them to. Our latest round of crowdfunding picks examine the sometimes rocky road to romance in a number of...
We all eventually face barriers of some kind. These barriers can be personal or professional, and often concern both ourselves and the families and communities we come from. Our latest crowdfunding...
It seems like every day brings more cancellations, closings, and upsetting news. The coronavirus is affecting the whole world, not least of all the artists and creators who are trying to bring their...
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...
Trauma impacts all of us in different ways, and can come from many different places, whether they be our experiences with gender, race, and class, our family, or our friends. Our latest crowdfunding...
Comedy is an extremely effective — and often underrated — tool by which to tell important stories. Our latest crowdfunding picks use humor to examine a variety of important contemporary...
With the cancellation of SXSW — and numerous other festivals and events — due to the coronavirus outbreak, many filmmaking teams are struggling. Money has been lost, not to mention a huge...
Sometimes we can feel alienated and left out by the narratives portrayed in culture and media, particularly when they fail to address and include the unique experiences of those with marginalized...
Growing up can be tough — navigating personal identity and self-expression as well as increasingly complicated relationships with family and friends is no easy task, especially when factors...
Figuring out who you are — and who you want to be — can be a difficult process, especially in a world so eager to put limitations on which identities are considered acceptable. This is an...
This month’s crowdfunding picks look at women who persevere — whether through daring feats, everyday moments that could mean life or death, or divulging something personal to someone they...
A person’s moral center starts developing at a young age, and continues to grow throughout their life — something we’re exploring in this month’s round of crowdfunding selections....
Whether it’s an understated coming-of-age portrayal of a biracial teenage girl beginning to recognize how her race and class impact how society treats her and others like her (“Miriam Lies”); a...
When it comes to history, women’s contributions have often been left out of the textbooks, or an event has been told exclusively from the male perspective. Each of this month’s crowdfunding picks...
The path to success is full of uncertainty and comes with no guarantees. For many, an already-difficult road is compounded by various factors: gender, race, sexuality, economic status, appearance,...
“It’s different for girls”: a ubiquitous phrase that holds a lot of truth. Things are different for girls. Harder, scarier, and so endlessly frustrating, it might just make someone scream. This...
Films can have many impacts on their viewers: they can entertain, first and foremost, they can make you feel like you aren’t alone, and they can introduce you to new people or places. But they...
History is important. Those that don’t remember this aren’t just doomed to repeat their mistakes, but could potentially destroy or lose something irreplaceable. The point of this round of...
Comedy has long been a vehicle to talk about the issues plaguing society. From projects like podcast-turned-HBO series “2 Dope Queens” to favorites like “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee,”...
Sometimes there’s no better way to decompress from a long day or a stressful week than watching an episode of your favorite show. Or four. Or 10. There’s no shame in a good binge-watching...
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