5 Cool-Sounding Kickstarter Movies That Are Looking for Funding

The Hard Candy Kid is looking for funding

This new year, why not resolve to donate a few bucks to the future of cinema? Kickstarter, the birthplace of such terrific 2014 films as Obvious Child and Blue Ruin, is full of ambitious filmmakers who would appreciate any small contribution you could make to their independent projects. Since four of the five Kickstarter films we highlighted in July reached their funding goals, we thought we’d give it another shot. Here are five inspired film projects — a documentary, a sci-fi film, a puppet movie, a vampire film, and a comedy — that could come to life with your support.

The Hard Candy Kid by the Beals Brothers
Matthew Beals, director of the 2009 documentary The Power of the Peep, delves deeper into his sugar obsession with this grown-up fairytale about a man who stumbles into a Willy Wonka-like adventure at a new marshmallow theme park. Shot at candy festivals and factories around the country, the project will combine documentary footage with surrealist elements, and has even scored an endorsement from Willy Wonka himself, Gene Wilder.
Kickstarter Goal: $50,000 by Jan. 30
Sample Reward: For $250, you get a full-size poster of your favorite candy shot in macro by the director/cinematographer, plus DVDs of Hard Candy Kid and the Peeps movie.

Risalo by Adnan Hussain
Feature-length puppet films don’t come along every day, and this one has an especially unique vision: Traditional Rajasthani puppets from India will perform the stories of Sufi poet Shah Latif, set to the music of a Pakistani folk band. “If we don’t create new projects with these traditions of art that have been handed down for generations, we’re at risk of losing them,” says director Adnan Hussain, who has worked as a visual effects artist on films like The Smurfs and Meet the Robinsons.
Kickstarter Goal: $10,000 by Jan. 11
Sample Reward: For $20, you’ll receive a digital download of the Risalo soundtrack, featuring the Sindhi music of the Girnari Jogi Group.

Octavia: Elegy for a Vampire by Dennis Leroy Kangalee
This existential horror film follows the story of a female African-American vampire (Numa Perrier) who is contemplating suicide after 150 years of life, including a brief moment of glory as an activist punk rock musician in the ‘80s. Kangalee’s previous feature film was the critically acclaimed, but unreleased micro-budgeted drama An Act of Protest.
Kickstarter Goal: $25,000 by Jan. 17
Sample Reward: A few items of the main character’s vintage wardrobe have already been claimed by donors, but a signed DVD and EP of the film’s original punk rock songs can be had for $150.

Food Fight — Inside the Battle for Market Basket by Jay Childs and Melissa Paly
Seasoned documentary filmmakers Childs and Paly were on the ground this summer filming the heated battle over Market Basket, the family-owned New England grocery store chain whose employees and customers fought back against a corporate takeover. The story made national news, with the New York Times calling it “the last stand for the middle class.”
Kickstarter Goal: $50,000 by Jan. 11
Sample Reward: $100 gets you a Food Fight baseball cap, a DVD, and a reusable shopping bag.

The Garden by Natalia Iyudin
There’s great style and vision in the previews for this short sci-fi film, about a post-Singularity world in which humans are pressured to convert into artificially intelligent beings. The story of one ballerina’s resistance is influenced by the Eastern Bloc heritage of filmmakers Natalia and Dmitry Iyudin.
Kickstarter Goal: $11,760 by Jan. 15
Sample Reward: If you give $2,000, the highest pledge bracket, the filmmaker will give you an Executive Producer credit, a pretty sweet tote bag, and a meal at “a futuristic restaurant in New York,” among other rewards.

Image credit: Copyright 2015 Matthew and Jeffrey Beals