TORONTO – The Documentary Organization of Canada (DOC) and global crowdfunding platform Indiegogo have announced a new strategic partnership that will allow independent Canadian documentary makers to save money when embarking on crowdfunding campaigns for their projects.
Documentarians may now save 25% on the crowdfunding platform's administration fees by launching via DOC's Partner Page. As revealed in DOC's recently published research paper Growing the Pie – Alternative Financing and Canadian Documentary, a growing number of documentary makers turns towards crowdfunding as part of their project financing strategy. Beyond acting as a funding mechanism outside of the traditional model, crowdfunding also allows filmmakers to build and engage with their audience right from the moment of a project’s inception.
Past Indiegogo-funded films include titles by DOC members such as Liz Marshall's multi-award winning Ghosts in Our Machine, and Velcrow Ripper's community-driven Occupy Love. Currently, David Vaisbord’s Little Mountain Film is one of the live campaigns along with Andrew Nisker’s Dark Side of the Chew. These projects will soon be joined by Elisa Paloshi’s campaign to finance post-production for Driving with Selvi and Galen Brown’s completion funding campaign for The Forgotten Salmon.
“Filmmakers value the opportunity to be in direct contact with their audiences at every stage of production”, said DOC executive director Lisa Fitzgibbons, in the news release. “The audience that comes to a project via a crowdfunding campaign can be an invaluable creative collaborator to the project and that interaction can be immensely gratifying to a filmmaker. These days, the dialogue with the audience starts at the very beginning of a project, not just once it is done!”
“We believe in driving filmmakers to do good work in their communities and we want to support Canadian filmmakers’ efforts in a climate where broadcasting partnerships and government grant money is in short supply and high demand,” added Ayah Norris, a successful crowdfunding filmmaker and Indiegogo’s marketing and community manager in Canada.
