We’re excited that Kickstarter is bringing back Long Story Short! All projects that run during the month of March will benefit from Kickstarter’s company-wide focus in promoting short film. We interviewed Liz Cook Mowe last year in advance of the initiative’s premiere and details remain similar this time out—expect the company to aggressively feature projects of every genre, share new creator resources, and take a look back at some of the outstanding short filmmaking of the past 11 years. Last year 133 projects launched as part of the initiative raising over $1.1M cumulatively. 

Speaking with Kickstarter’s Head of Narrative Film, Elise McCave, she relays that, “If you’re thinking about running a fundraising campaign, Long Story Short could be the nudge you’re looking for. And rest assured, you can expect the love, encouragement, support, and promotion you need from our team and our community.” Click here for details on how to participate.

In honor of Long Story Short and Kickstarter’s massive footprint over the past decade-plus in indie-filmmaking, we thought it would be fun to revisit a small handful of our favorite success stories from recent years, as well take a look at exciting projects on the horizon that we hope hit your screens soon. This isn’t definitive, just a sampling of things that have caught our eye, but in looking through the long track record of films we love that have emerged from the platform, we’re now extra-hyped to check out the new discoveries we’ll make browsing the Long Story Short homepage this next month!

The reigning Oscar-winner, Hair Love started as a viral Kickstarter, a journey we described in our coverage of the film last year in advance of its big awards win. A mixture of heartwarming domesticity and animated hijinks, Matthew Cherry’s representation of black fatherhood struck a chord with audiences worldwide. Next up? A 12-episode series order from HBO Max. 

We love Danny Madden, having featured the director’s work 4 times on the site. Madden, along with his frequent partner-in-crime Jim Cummings (Thunder Road, The Wolf of Snow Hollow) have been frequent Kickstarter creators in the past, and he used the platform to launch this proof-of-concept short in 2018. It ended up as the basis of his 2020 Sundance Feature Film debut, Beast Beast, which is now streaming for free on Tubi. 

A Short Awards honoree two years in a row, Matthew Puccini is one of the most interesting purveyors of queer, nay human, stories in film right now. Funded in 2018, Lavender ended up premiering at Sundance where it was one of the first short films to ever be acquired by the venerable Fox Searchlight Pictures.  

Kickstarter-funded films sometimes have strange arcs and Skywatch is notable for its long journey from concept to realization, something we addressed in our coverage of the film. After working on it for years, Colin Levy took the project to Kickstarter to get it over the hump in 2017.  When it finally emerged in late 2019, audiences agreed that the Amblin-esque sci-fi adventure was worth the wait, as it became a big hit online. Streamers noticed, and Skywatch is set to continue its life as a series on Peacock. 

What to Look Forward To

The Shawl is an absolute delight. Premiering at Sundance 2020, you might have caught it during Mailchimp’s presentation of the 2020 SXSW short films at the start of the pandemic, but we’re still awaiting an official YouTube or Vimeo release. Sara Kiener’s tale is a charming shaggy-dog doc/animation hybrid about queer love, Stevie Nicks, and what just might be a magical piece of clothing. 

The Chicken is a gorgeously shot absurdist tale set in NYC. Neo Sora’s adaptation of a celebrated Japanese short story caught our eye on the festival circuit and its ruminations on Asian identity, parenthood, structural violence, and contemporary urban life leaves audiences with a lot to chew on. 

One of the break-out successes of last year’s Long Story Short, Jenn Ravenna’s And Then raised over $100k. A short film about two women who meet and grow closer to each other through insomnia, exploring a new city, and art, we’re keeping an eye on this one as it is set to hit festivals later this year. In the meantime, the talented creator will be back on Kickstarter in March to raise funds for her latest project, Death’s Diner. 

R’ha was, in 2013, one of the breakout shorts in the middle of a glory age for sci-fi proof-of-concept shorts. New development deals were being inked monthly it seemed, and, with over 20M views across platforms, Kaleb Lechowski’s solo cg film was one of the shiniest objects. As we’ve covered elsewhere, the DIY sci-fi trend ran into obstacles when it collided with Hollywood, and creators have had difficulty realizing their visions within old-world structures. So, in 2016 Lechowski decided that he would continue the story of R’Ha himself, expanding the world of his short with a sequel created outside of the traditional industry. It’s been a long, daunting process, and as a backer, I keenly read Lechowski’s updates as he struggles to create something bigger and better than his breakout work, but still shoulders much of the technical burden himself. Will R’ha 2 ever see the light of day? It’s not a sure thing, but it’s one of the projects on the horizon I remain most fascinated by.