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My fellow filmmakers,

I am producing a documentary, called "The Eyes of Thailand", about the founder of the world's first Asian Elephant Hospital in Thailand, which builds prosthetic limbs for elephants who step on landmines. http://www.eyesofthailand.com>

As of Friday, July 31, I received word that Motala, one of the elephant landmine survivors I filmed in 2007, will receive her first prosthetic limb on August 15-16, 2009--10 years after her landmine accident!

For the details and a message from the Elephant Hospital founder, Soraida Salwala, please visit: http://www.eyesofthailand.com/blog/

Needless to say, I have to film this for the documentary, but I will not hear from my grants and funding proposals until September or October. Therefore, I am writing to ask each of you to make a tax-deductible contribution to the film so I can raise the US $3,000 needed.

The cost break down is:
$2300 airfare (Thai Airways or China Airways)
$500 camera person in Thailand
$200 food and lodging expenses for me

I need to raise this within the next 48 hours, before plane tickets get any more expensive!

If 100 people donate $30...
Or 60 people donate $50...
Or 30 people donate $100...
Or 10 people donate $300...
Or 3 people donate $1,000...

I will be able to purchase the ticket on Monday, August 3, 2009.

Note: As of 12:00pm PDT Saturday, we've raised $685.

Please be a part of this historic moment and a pivotal part of the film by contributing TODAY!

You can make your tax-deductible donation through the film's fiscal sponsor, The San Francisco Film Society, at: http://www.sffs.org/donate/donate-now.aspx?pid=47

With deepest gratitude,

Windy Borman
Producer, Writer and Director, "The Eyes of Thailand"

P.S. Please email me at windy@dvaproductions.com after you make your donation so I can keep the running total up to date. Thank you!

P.P.S. Please encourage other film and animal lovers you know to donate, too! http://www.sffs.org/donate/donate-now.aspx?pid=47

Hello,
i've been working for an italian based video production company since almost one year (www.flatmind.com). i always had a passion for photography documentaries and filmmaking. we also have an office in Shanghai China where for my interesting we took part of cooperation with non profit organization (http://www.flatmind.com/video/ita/VIAGGI_XinXing.htm). i find your project very interesting and i'd love to go back home anytime to team up with you. i'm from the north east though close to Venice, hills and thermal water area. i would not understand sicily dialect but i know exactly the feeling of small villages. for more informations please do not hesitate to contact me alessandro.gallo@flatmind.com
thanks

By the way ,this web site is very useful and well made
thank you

Thank you and welcome, Alessandro!

Hi all, I'm Severine Petit. I am french, born in Corsica Island and currently leaving in Italy.
Although I'm not a professional documentary shooter my job is to select documentaries for an Italian international film festival called Slow Food on Film. I attend festivals, watch promos online and invite people to Bologna once a year. My boyfriend is a member of the D-word since a year or so and spends most of his non shooting time on this forum. He sometimes tells me about a documentary that I might be interested in. He can get pretty boring sometimes so i thought that I should join the community and see for myself!

What's his name? Or do we need a "in a relationship with" feature on The D-Word? ;-)

A big welcome from Ljubljana airport!

Not many D-word members in Bra, Italy..

But where is this Bra?

Near Turin, Piedmont, north west of the country.
Thank you!

Welcome, Alessandro and Severine. To become full-fledged members with full access to the discussion topics, you have to go one step further ...

Hello D-worders.

I realized I never did a formal intro. – and will post a pic soon!

The more I read on this site, the more I love it. Thank you to all who put in the time to respond so thoughtfully. And of course, big thanks to the hosts!

I am a documentary filmmaker and attorney. I have made two films so far:
1 – Runners High about a group of inner city teenagers who trained for and ran the LA marathon: www.runnershighfilm.com. Played lots of festals, working on distribution, and learning lots along the way.
We are working on getting it out to the educational market now and I would love to hook up with other running films to do some cross promotions to running groups.

2 – Paper or Plastic? about a slice of Americana told through the national grocery bagging competition. www.paperoplasticmovie.com. Premiered last year at LAFF, played other fests, and playing this weekend at the Feel Good Festival. Got offers from distributors and we passed because the terms were ridiculous. We are taking it out ourselves and planning a limited theatrical release for later this year. Stumbling/learning and will share info. along the way.

3 – we're in development on a third project Chocolate www.chocolatedocumentary.com about three individuals using chocolate to change the world, but have not found funding and it's been put on hold. We hope to do some shorts along the way as well.

I am also fortunate to be working as an attorney with Richard Lee here in Oakland representing mostly independent filmmakers which has been a real joy. I also currently represent Distribber who I believe is providing an extremely valuable service to filmmakers in getting access for them to iTunes and helping them retain/control profits of their films.

My goals are to continue to tell stories visually. I love making films and have been lucky to work with incredibly talented folks (some on D-word – Garret Savage, Alex da Silva, Marco d'Ambrosio, Andrew Gersh, James leBrecht). I'm intrigued by the power of social networking in reaching an audience and want to learn how to do it effectively for our projects. I'm awed by the passion of filmmakers and grateful for communities like this.

Thank you.

oops – I forgot to also say that I have 3 kids under 6 who are awesome and constant entertainment when all else fails.

Welcome Justine. We're very happy to have you. Paper or Plastic was a good fun film. D-Word is like crack. You have been warned.

In reply to Windy Borman's post on Sat 1 Aug 2009 : Hello fello filmmaker...

Just watched your promo, great story, great job! I just forwarded your website to a few people.

Hello Everyone,

This is my first POST. My name is Tim VandeSteeg; I am the Director/Producer of the new inspirational documentary My Run, the story of Terry Hitchcock, narrated by Academy Award winner Billy Bob Thornton.

After tragically losing his wife to breast cancer and struggling to raise three young children on his own, Terry Hitchcock seized on an idea. He wanted to accomplish the impossible: run 75 consecutive marathons in 75 consecutive days to bring attention to the incredibly difficult lives of single-parent families.

I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce you to our film, My Run and hopefully gain your support to help us spread the word about Terry’s amazing story. I am very proud of our film, which has been a labor of love for me for the past three years and I’m excited to announce its completion.

Being raised by a single parent myself, I understand the sacrifices and obstacles that face single parent families every day. I understand that it’s “love” that keeps these families surviving and pushing forward. I believe the film acknowledges our true heroes today… single parents.

The promo TRAILER is available at: Over 30,000 hits | 5 out of 5 rating!
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/video/video.php?v=54337799584&oid=29649254351

Official Website: www.myrunmovie.com | Twitter: MyRunMovie | FAN PAGE: http://www.facebook.com/myrunmovie

Sincerely I thank you,
Tim

Tim, welcome to The D-Word, good to have you here. And best of luck with your film.

In reply to Doug Block's post on Sun 9 Aug 2009 :

Hi Doug... thank you. By the way, great job with your documentary, 51 Birch Street. I saw it last year with a good friend of mine, a very very moving and powerful film... Tim

In reply to Marj Safinia's post on Sat 8 Aug 2009 :

Thanks for the warning. :-)
And thanks for seeing Paper or Plastic – it was fun to make and I'm trying to have fun in distribution land. Appreciate the support.

Thanks, Tim. Appreciate the kind words. Justine, been curious about Paper or Plastic for a while now (ever since there was some back and forth here about the title). Would love an update over in Marketing and Distribution.

In reply to Severine Petit's post on Tue 4 Aug 2009 :

LOVE Bra and Turin. We stayed there for the Slow Food Festival in '06. Can't wait to get back.

Heading over to Marketing and Distribution for an update on PoP? What was the back and forth?

You could do a search. But the idea of alternative titles was asked about and then batted around.

ah, I see Doug, you hate our title. ;-)
I'll switch this over to marketing, but as we brand our film now for theatrical, what would happen if we change the title....

Hi, my name is Stephan and I'm a freelance filmmaker, I work mainly for BBC departments, making films for internal use. For example, this year I directed a series looking at critical thinking and how programme makers and journalists can make better use of philosophy to tackle various issues such as the way we report science, or deal with value, and even talk about the future. Currently I'm working on a film about a photographer who has embarked on a project to photograph electricity pylons. There's a clip here – http://www.vimeo.com/5083013 – We're hoping to submit it to festivals next year. I've joined because there are some interesting conversations here, and because it could be a good place to sound out a problems and issues that naturally crop up in this work. Nice to meet you all, look forward to joining in.

Hi Stephan, you have bumped into a good place and I'm sure the powers that be will advise you come inside properly, however you must stop using auto focus.