In two days Ormond resident's Kickstarter for environmental documentary raises $5,000 of $30,000 goal

Ormond Beach Observer
Neighbors

Photographer, filmmaker and long time Daytona State College professor Eric Breitenbach launched a Kickstarter campaign Sept. 7 to raise money for a documentary film on American naturalist William Bartram. In the just two days that the campaign has been live, over $5,000 has been pledged.

Breitenbach is producing the film, "Cultivating the Wild: William Bartram’s Travels," with University of Georgia professor Dorinda Dallmeyer, one of the South’s leading experts on William Bartram and the author of "Bartram’s Living Legacy: The Travels and Nature of the South."

The film has been in production for over a year, and the producers need to raise $30,000 to complete it. Having made films for National Geographic Explorer, The Sundance Channel, and both regional and national PBS, Breitenbach knew that raising money for an independent documentary on the unknown Bartram would be difficult.

“I’d much rather be out with a camera," said Breitenbach, “but the reality is that documentary films are getting harder and harder to fund, and frequently independent filmmakers have to take matters into their own hands. Kickstarter has worked tremendously well for a lot of people. They evaluate all of their sponsored projects. You have to have done some serious work in order to qualify, and the fact that we’re halfway through production of the film and have letters of interest from PBS stations was enough to gain their confidence.”

The money raised will fund the remaining location, and aerial and underwater videography. The producers also want to animate certain passages from Bartram’s book, and each animation can cost several thousand dollars.

“We’ve had some success so far, thanks to support from a number of local people and businesses,” said Breitenbach. “We’ve had a couple of fundraisers that have not only been successful financially, but have also raised awareness for what it is we’re trying to do, and that’s critical for the success of the Kickstarter.”

The campaign will run until Oct. 7 and can be found by going to cultivatingthewild.com or by clicking here.

For more information on the film, contact Eric Breitenbach at 386-506- 3542.