The Weight of Community: Crowdfunding Picks

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 own identities. What does it mean for us and our personal development when our mental state conflicts with the community we belong to? This week’s crowdfunding picks reckon with community.

Reflecting on the issue of food scarcity in British communities, Helen Iley’s “Egg & Chips” follows a mother and daughter, each trying to understand the gravity of their situation in their own way. Tamara Sangdow’s “Welcome Home” sees the filmmaker using her identity as a Thai-American woman to explore the emotional tumult of a character visiting her dying father in Thailand after years without contact, wrestling with the forces of family and cultural identity. Kelsey Barry also takes on a heavy load of community, culture, and representation with the film “Take Your Mark.” Inspired by her own life, Barry examines the social pressures of Black excellence with its toll on mental health.

Questions of self-identity and how one engages with their communities are universal, so whether you personally identify with the plots of these short film projects or not, we’re betting that their themes will resonate.

Here are Women and Hollywood’s latest crowdfunding picks.

“Egg & Chips” (Short) – Written and Directed by Helen Iley

“Egg & Chips,” a Raindance Finalist script adapted from a spoken word piece by writer and director Helen Iley, tells the story of a  young British family. The short sheds light on the harsh realities of British poverty while still celebrating the value of community. It follows Flo, a ten-year-old girl who attempts to feed her family by stealing a chicken. Meanwhile, her mother Triss refuses to acknowledge their impending eviction.

Iley depicts the lived reality of those living in poverty and comments on the barriers to access high-quality, nutritious food. On the project’s Kickstarter page, the filmmaker draws attention to the fact that there are currently “4.2 million children in poverty in the U.K, including single parents having 42 percent of children in poverty.” Iley was motivated to rework her script in light of the pandemic and how COVID-19 caused these issues to escalate. 

With “Eggs & Chips,” Iley is consciously making a film in which the story and subject are used as a form of outreach, part of an effort to mobilize her audience to learn more about and partake in community projects. She hopes to work with local projects and charities that specifically support “low-income families and young children facing difficulty in their daily lives,” the film’s crowdfunding page explains.  Iley teamed up with Lineham Farm, an outdoor children’s centre, where the team “hope[s] to host a charity screening and do ongoing fundraising for them throughout the festival period once the film has been made.”

Learn more about “Egg & Chips” and donate on Kickstarter.

“Welcome Home” (Short) – Written and Directed by Tamara Sangdow 

Writer, director, and creative director Tamara Sangdow’s bicultural upbringing informs her upcoming project, “Welcome Home,” a short film about a Thai-American woman who travels to Bangkok from the U.S. to visit her dying, estranged father. A Thai-American herself, Sangdow strives to make stories that are not only thoughtful and authentic, but also push boundaries in front of and behind the camera.

The story of “Welcome Home” is one such example. Sangdow describes the film as a personal project on multiple levels, delving into themes of identity, interpersonal family relationships, and healing from past trauma. Filled with familial death, ghosts, and dark spirits, “Welcome Home” explores how “we become more at home with ourselves in addition to our physical homes,” per its crowdfunding page.

Because representation is important on-screen and behind the scenes, Sangdow is working with an all-Thai film crew — most of whom identify as women — for all of pre-production and production, and potentially post-production.

Learn more about “Welcome Home” and donate on Kickstarter. 

“Take Your Mark” (Short) – Written and Directed by Kelsey Barry

“Take Your Mark” follows Jordyn , an accomplished swimmer striving to win the state meet in order to uphold her family’s high achieving track record. On this journey, she faces teammates actively rooting against her as well as a string of panic attacks, forcing her to grapple with her family’s legacy of Black excellence.

A meditation on community representation and mental health, “Take Your Mark” is informed by the lived experience of director Kelsey Barry as the only Black swimmer on her varsity team.

In this woman-led project, Barry hopes other Black girls and women will see themselves in Jordyn’s story and realize that their mental health matters, despite the societal expectation to constantly prove themselves. “There’s always this pressure of Black excellence, to be the best because you’re representing your community,” she reflected in her director’s statement. “But it’s only recently that there’s been a movement to put mental health first. And in spite of this there are still those who don’t understand how important it is to prioritize mental health.”

Learn more about “Take Your Mark” and donate on Kickstarter.

To be considered for Women and Hollywood’s crowdfunding feature, please write to wandhcrowdfunding@gmail.com. All formats (features, shorts, web series, etc.) welcome. Projects must be by and/or about women.