A poster advertising Debra White Plume’s documentary feature in progress is one of the rewards to donors who help raise money for post-production costs. Courtesy/Prairie Dust Films
White Plume’s documentary film faces fund raising deadline
By Talli Nauman
Native Sun News
Health & Environment Editor RAPID CITY – As Lakota grandmother Debra White Plume goes to testify against proposed uranium mining in the Black Hills during public hearings the week of Oct. 28, she is facing a deadline for her filmmaking on the subject. Her Prairie Dust Films company must raise $27,000 by Nov. 7, the date that the funding campaign sponsored by the crowd-sourcing agent Kickstarter comes to an end on the Internet for the documentary feature film “Crying Earth Rise Up”. “Can you help us get the word out about this fundraising to finish our documentary?” White Plume asked the Native Sun News. “We are behind schedule as we were without electricity and Internet for five days,” she said, referring to the impacts of an unseasonal snowstorm during the first week of October. If the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation native doesn’t round up the money, she and her film director Suree Towfighnia will not be able to proceed to the post-production and outreach phases of “Crying Earth Rise Up”. A rough cut of the movie is finished and has been shown several times as a work-in-progress to help raise money and awareness about proposed uranium mining. At press time, a little more than $5,600 had been pledged by 84 backers visiting the website http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1103914669/crying-earth-rise-up-a-documentary-work-in-progress. Pledge categories range from $1 to $10,000. Each category comes with its own reward to the giver, ranging from a simple “thanks” to an entire video production of the donor’s choice. In between, are signed posters and other movie paraphernalia, such as beverage mugs and t-shirts. Topping off the list of rewards are: poems, songs, producer credits and a trail ride on horseback with the filmmakers at their ranch in Manderson on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The pledges are made with a credit-card submission on-line. Folks who don’t make a donation with a credit card can do it with a check through a different campaign, organized by the film’s fiscal agent Documentary Educational Resources. In the check-writing campaign, filmmakers are trying to raise $10,000 in tax-deductible donations, asking that contributions of $200 or more be made payable to Documentary Educational Resources and mailed to: Prairie Dust Films, LLC at 2631 N. Sacramento in Chicago, Illinois. The zip code is 60647. A memorandum should be noted on the check, designating it for “Crying Earth Rise Up.” Questions about the check-writing campaign can be directed to cryingearthriseupfilm@gmail.com. “Making an independent documentary, as most donors know or can guess, is difficult,” filmmakers say in their plea for support. ‘Resources,’ both personal and monetary, are rarely in abundance. Aside from financial constraints, real life cannot be controlled, which equates to unpredictable production schedules, story revisions and shifting demands on personnel,” they note. Collaborators on “Crying Earth Rise Up” have “weathered these challenges, and we will continue move forward until the film is completed,” they promise. “Our track record proves that we will not give up until this film is finished!” On their list of funding needs are:
• Feature editor, namely Sharon Karp of Media Monster, who edited Prairie Dust’s first film “Standing Silent Nation” and other award-winning documentaries.“Crying Earth Rise Up” tells the story of two women's parallel search for answers to the question: Why are there high levels of radiation in our drinking water and how can we protect our families and community against this threat? White Plume views uranium mining operations as one source of water contamination and as an encroachment on the water rights of the Lakota Nation. She is the lead plaintiff in a case challenging uranium mining on tribal land and works with her community to protect treaty territory from exploitation of natural resources by corporate interests. Elisha Yellow Thunder, a Lakota mother and a geology student, seeks answers through science and the earth itself. During her pregnancy, she unknowingly drank contaminated water and her daughter Laila was born with severe medical anomalies. Currently Laila fights kidney failure. When Yellow Thunder can take time away from caring for Laila, she maps ore outcroppings on the Pine Ridge Reservation in search of uranium and the origins of water contamination. (Contact Talli Nauman, Native Sun News Health and Environment editor at talli.nauman@gmail.com) Copyright permission by Native Sun News
• Finishing costs (color correction, basic sound mixing and design, music rights and original music creation, animation, graphics, film mastering and layoff, and closed-captioning).
• Insurance (necessary for television broadcast, DVD distribution and digital download distribution).
• Producer, director and writer fees.
• Launching an outreach campaign (tour for communities facing the uranium mining issue near native lands and reservations).
• Narrator recording sessions.
• Website (maintenance and hosting costs of CryingEarthRiseUp.com).
• Creation of web videos (containing additional materials not included in the final broadcast film).
• Final production costs for the few missing pieces that need to be integrated into the edit (such as travel, gear, camera and sound, as well as film personnel stipends).
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