With companies now cropping up online helping to give creative types a leg up, we here at Dork Shelf have kicked off a special series called KICKSTARTER OF THE WEEK. Every week on Friday afternoon we will showcase some of the most exciting projects currently in search of funding from the film, music, gaming, and arts communities.
For our first entry, we invite you to take a look at Daniel McCabe’s documentary THIS IS CONGO, which really needs your help with less than 24 hours remaining in their campaign.
From the Kickstarter page:
“After nearly 3 years of filming and research, the film makers present an in-depth exploration of the fight for the DRC’s vast mineral wealth and natural resources. Battles are waged daily by those who will kill to plunder the country’s rare metals and other natural bounty, which ends up in the hands of western end users. Eastern Congo is an area where an estimated 1,500 people die each day as victims of war, where rape and child combatants have reached epidemic proportions. THIS IS CONGO will document one of the key aspects of violent conflict in the Congo; it’s resource wars. Showing the direct link between the continued violence in eastern Congo and the consumer products that are manufactured today. From raw materials to war, it will provide a looking glass view into the human costs of an unregulated international market for Congo’s valuable natural resources as seen through the eyes of our Congolese characters. It will also testify to the need for finding a realistic and enduring solution to over a decade of violent conflict
Along the way THIS IS CONGO will give viewers insight into the reality of this complex situation; informing them of the efforts being made to prevent this ongoing conflict. It will explore the causes of media blackouts and why the world’s largest assembled peacekeeping mission MONUSCO has been rendered useless. It will also show how no single initiative alone can change things, as well as what the components of a working solution may be. Explaining the delicate combination of transparency and demilitarization of the mining industry, coupled with massive government reform. Showing how rehabilitation of the shell-shocked population and their infrastructure is needed in addition to international support, will inform the viewer where help is needed most. Beginning with these resources in their raw form and following the extraction, transport and smuggling process through to the end-user’s cell phone, engagement ring or automobile, this film completes the circle in this violent chain by following the stories of individual characters that are affected along the way. Exposing the reality of the products most own today, and the relationship to the current situation in Eastern Congo”
For more information on the film, head on over to www.thisiscongo.com or read more about it on the Kickstarter page. McCabe and Geoff McLean are looking to raise $30,000 to help keep their crew going and keep the production moving along. As of 4pm this afternoon, they were only just past the halfway point, so your help would be greatly appreciated. As with most online fundraising programmes, there are plenty of goodies available for those looking to help for even as little as $10. For full details on how you can help, head on over to their donation page.
Do you have a potential project you would like us to feature on our Kickstarter of the Week series? Send your ideas for consideration to andrew@dorkshelf.com and your project might be featured here! It doesn’t have to be films, it can be anything creative from music videos to video games. Let us help your passions and get your project to the people who want to see it most!
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