Alex has always wanted to have a baby. But how is a butch Chicana lesbian supposed to get sperm? Picking up men at nightclubs? Asking queer male friends for a donation? Using a sperm bank? This candid and humorous animated web series is a confession of desire and humility.
Alex has always wanted to have a baby. But how is a butch Chicana lesbian supposed to get sperm? Picking up men at nightclubs? Asking queer male friends for a donation? Using a sperm bank? This candid and humorous animated web series is a confession of desire and humility.
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Story
Mission Statement
This web series centres on a trans/butch lesbian who aims to get pregnant. Our creative crew imagines how queer people can be represented in the world of animation. Our passion is representing the multiplicity of the queer world and female experiences. Our crew is majority LGBTQ+, women and BIPOC.About The Project
This series is a story about a lesbian/trans person on a quest.
How to Get a Girl Pregnant is an animated web series which tells the story of a trans/butch lesbian’s attempts to get pregnant. The web series captures the challenges, humour, and desire of this bittersweet journey.
It’s also a universal story about how we see ourselves, how our bodies are politicized, how love helps us to dream, and how heritage can provide us with both a foundation and a yearning for a better world. The main character emphasizes the importance of her mixed white and Mexican heritage in light of the discrimination against Mexicans she has witnessed throughout her life. In this era of especially ugly talk, it is more important than ever to show the beauty and value of queer Latinx lives.
We’ve currently completed a pilot and the script and storyboard for the webseries. This Seed & Spark campaign will help us deliver the next stage which is the actor’s dialogue record. Once that is achieved we’ll be able to move to animation which is the most intensive stage. When the webseries is complete, we’ll make it available through online streaming on sites like Seed&Spark.
Follow our Facebook and Instagram pages @howtogetagirlpregnant for updates, behind-the-scenes, and announcements.
Scriptwriter: Karleen Pendleton Jiménez:The film explores assumptions about who gets to be a mother and who gets to be recognized as a legitimate mother. There are an infinite number of barriers to giving birth: feeling ready, self-confidence, identity, fertility, money, sperm-procurement, discrimination, access to medicine, laws, etc. But queers do have a right nonetheless to try to birth or adopt babies if we so choose. And often it’s our friends, families and lovers who help us along on this humbling adventure.
Co-Director: Janet Romero Leiva:
i am working on this film...
because i love that we get to create a visual world that reflects our lived experiences
because there isn't enough art out there about queer latinx parenting and fertility and love and grief
because i can bring my whole self to this work space
because we don't often/rarely get to see (in animation or any other form) the many challenges, pain, time and tears that come before a person is a parent
because bodies that make and carry babies can look in a variety of ways that we don't see in mainstream culture
because it's needed
because it's joyful
because i am learning and having my visual, creative and humxn lens/world expanded
because it is humbling and necessary to have a say in how queer and latinx and working class and immigrant communities are represented
Co-Director: Barb Taylor:
We explore the themes of fertility and renewal visually using waves of water and baby and mythical animals. We create a beautiful hand painted colour palette featuring the streets of Toronto at night and San Francisco in sunlight. We aim to create a visual dreamland and look at our bodies through a queer lens and search for accurate portrayals of the way we act and dance and love. Previously I explored queer worlds of emotions, magic and mythology and How to Get a Girl Pregnant continues that work.
Alex:A trans/butch lesbian in her mid-thirties. She has short straight brown hair, brown eyes, fair skin. She is of Mexican and White origin. She was born and raised in the United States but has lived in Canada for a decade. She wears men’s clothes and is a little chubby. She is a graduate student. She is confident in bars, but vulnerable in medical settings. She knows little about men romantically or about getting pregnant. She has a very strong drive to have a baby. She is willing to take unexpected risks to achieve her goal.
Mateo:
A gay man in his mid-thirties. He’s tallish with black curly hair and brown eyes. A good friend of Alex.
To date we have created a pilot and written the script and created a storyboard for the series. Next is completing the dialogue record for the series since this is animation. Then we can move on to animating!
GOALS:
- To raise 80% of our goal: This means we can compensate our cast and crew, get into the studio to record dialogue!
- To raise 100% of our goal: This means we can fully pay everyone as well - director, producer, casting director.
STRETCH GOAL:
If we raise 150% of our goal, we can take on designing characters for series animation the next step!Your direct support goes towards uplifting talented artists and creatives who are made up of LGBTQ2S, women identified and BIPOC, who do not get enough representation in the media or film industry.
We will be working remotely using new technology for capturing voice record if need be due to the pandemic. If we can go into the studio we'll work at the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto.
Your contributions will help pay for:
- Dialogue Actors (8 people) $4,400
- Actra fees $500
- Casting Director $2000
- Studio or virtual technology for voice capture $400
- Audio Engineer $1000
- Creators fee (Barb Taylor, Karleen P. Jiménez, Janet Romero Leiva) $1200
- Producer (Madi Piller) $500
This also gives us the opportunity to submit to funders for the series and share our queer narratives with the world and reach distributors.
Follow our Facebook and Instagram pages @howtogetagirlpregnant for updates, behind-the-scenes, and announcements.
Incentives
C$5
Facebook Shoutout!
Thank you shoutout on our facebook page because we love you <3
C$15
Digital Download of the Book!
Digital download of the book How To Get A Girl Pregnant in iBook or PDF format!
C$25
Personalized Contribution Badge!
You're awesome! As thanks, we'd like to compensate you with a customized digital contributor's badge for you to share how incredible you are on your social media!
C$50
Exclusive Stickers!
Stickers - A sheet of 5.5 x 8.5 " stickers that can go anywhere - on a laptop, cell cover, fridge.
C$50
Web Series Buttons + Digital Book Download!
Package of five 1.5" buttons with images from the web series
+ Digital download of book How to Get a Girl Pregnant.
C$55
Co-Director Janet Romero Leiva's Custom Art Buttons + Digital Book Download!
Package of five 1.5" buttons with images by co-director Janet Romero Leiva
+ Digital download of book How to Get a Girl Pregnant.
C$100
Series of 5 - 8.5x11 digital colour prints ++++
Series of five 8.5x11" digital colour prints of web series backgrounds on glossy paper
A sheet of 5.5 x 8.5 " stickers
plus bonus digital download of book
C$200
Signed Digital Version of Storyboard +++++
Signed digital version of storyboard (about 500 pages)
Get a copy of the storyboard signed by the co-directors Janet and Barb plus storyboard artist Ashley. PLUS a digital copy of the film and script and BTS photos.
Digital download of the web series with captions (1)
Digital download of script (1)
BTS photos (1)
Signed script (1)
C$500
Your Image Drawn in a Scene!
Your image in the background of a dance scene in the web series - see the sample dancers - it would be awesome to have you included!
C$1,000
Associate Producer Credit + Package
Associate producer credit
Your support means we're able to make this movie. We'll recognize you as an Associate Producer with credit on IMDb and in the credits as well as a VIP invite to the premiere (after the pandemic).
Digital download of the web series (1)
Digital download of script (1)
BTS hhotos (1)
VIP Invite to Premiere + Party (1)
Associate Producer Credit (1)
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Wishlist
Use the WishList to pledge cash and loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an incentive directly.
C$5
Facebook Shoutout!
Thank you shoutout on our facebook page because we love you <3
C$15
Digital Download of the Book!
Digital download of the book How To Get A Girl Pregnant in iBook or PDF format!
C$25
Personalized Contribution Badge!
You're awesome! As thanks, we'd like to compensate you with a customized digital contributor's badge for you to share how incredible you are on your social media!
C$50
Exclusive Stickers!
Stickers - A sheet of 5.5 x 8.5 " stickers that can go anywhere - on a laptop, cell cover, fridge.
C$50
Web Series Buttons + Digital Book Download!
Package of five 1.5" buttons with images from the web series
+ Digital download of book How to Get a Girl Pregnant.
C$55
Co-Director Janet Romero Leiva's Custom Art Buttons + Digital Book Download!
Package of five 1.5" buttons with images by co-director Janet Romero Leiva
+ Digital download of book How to Get a Girl Pregnant.
C$100
Series of 5 - 8.5x11 digital colour prints ++++
Series of five 8.5x11" digital colour prints of web series backgrounds on glossy paper
A sheet of 5.5 x 8.5 " stickers
plus bonus digital download of book
C$200
Signed Digital Version of Storyboard +++++
Signed digital version of storyboard (about 500 pages)
Get a copy of the storyboard signed by the co-directors Janet and Barb plus storyboard artist Ashley. PLUS a digital copy of the film and script and BTS photos.
Digital download of the web series with captions (1)
Digital download of script (1)
BTS photos (1)
Signed script (1)
C$500
Your Image Drawn in a Scene!
Your image in the background of a dance scene in the web series - see the sample dancers - it would be awesome to have you included!
C$1,000
Associate Producer Credit + Package
Associate producer credit
Your support means we're able to make this movie. We'll recognize you as an Associate Producer with credit on IMDb and in the credits as well as a VIP invite to the premiere (after the pandemic).
Digital download of the web series (1)
Digital download of script (1)
BTS hhotos (1)
VIP Invite to Premiere + Party (1)
Associate Producer Credit (1)
- Updates
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Current Team
About This Team
Scriptwriter: Karleen Pendleton Jiménez
Karleen is a lesbian/trans mother who shares her journey in the book and now film How to Get a Girl Pregnant. She has written three books: Are You a Boy or a Girl? (2000), How to Get a Girl Pregnant (2011) and Tomboys and Other Gender Heroes (2016).
Co-Director and Design: Janet Romero-Leiva
Janet romero-leiva is a queer feminist latinx visual artist and writer whose work explores immigrant displacement, denied aboriginality, and the experience of living between the south and the north, between spanish and english, between memory and truth.
Co-Director and Animator: Barb Taylor
Lesbian animator Barb Taylor has created a number of award winning short films and innovative digital stories. Her animated films Tomboy and Bobbi & Sheelagh explore queer worlds of imagination. She’s currently working on her first feature film.
Producer: Madi Piller
Madi is a filmmaker, experimental animator, programmer and independent curator currently living and working in Toronto. Madi has curated a diverse program of films at her studio Pix Films in Toronto as well as around the world.
Actor: Alex Castillo
Born in Santiago, Chile, this former Canadian dancer received extensive acting and dance training in North America, Spain and France. Her character on Rookie Blue, Detective Inez Capello, garnered quite a following by that show's loyal fans. She has one daughter, born 2011, who she is raising alone.
Actor: Jose Arias
Born in El Salvador and Raised in Toronto, Jose most recently appeared in the Sony Pictures Television Movie ‘Angry Angel’ starring Jason Biggs. TV credits include: ‘Rookie Blue’ (ABC/Global) ‘Odd Squad’ (PBS/TVO), & ‘Amazon’ (Alliance Atlantis). His Drag performer alter ego Dyna Thirst has appeared in the television film ‘Roxanna’, as well as the CTV series ‘Saving Hope’, and ‘Degrassi’.
Vocalist: Lido PimientaKnown as “Colombian darling” and “Soundsister”, Lido Pimienta jumps back and forth from electronic beats, analog synths and Afro-Colombian rhythms to out-of-this-world chanting. Recipient of the 2016 Polaris Prize she has recently been nominated for a Grammy Award.
Music Director: Alejandra NuñezAlejandra Nuñez is a vocalist, percussionist and composer. Born in Santiago Chile, her percussion work has taken her to Brazil, Cuba, Puerto Rico, New York and Egypt. She was band leader of the Latin Jazz Band Projecto Urbano, and written scores for plays including Trey Anthony’s Da Kink in My Hair.
Vocalist: Kate ReidSlam poetry meets folk music meets LGBTQ-themed tunes in Toronto-based singer-songwriter Kate Reid. She is funny, passionate, queer as a three-dollar bill, and she’s sure to entertain. Her songs just might have you rolling in the aisles with laughter or dabbing tears from your eyes.
Animation Artist: Ashley Delacruz
A passionate animation artist with strong drawing skills and keen sense of design. Enthusiastic about producing memorable characters, for players to share amazing experiences with. Working on storyboard and design for How to Get a Girl Pregnant.
Artist: Joanie Cournoyer
Joanie is a 2D artist currently based in Quebec City. With a 2D/3D animation diploma, she’s been doing freelance illustration work since 2015. Passionate about art and storytelling and loves to create new characters and environment. She’s currently working on How to Get a Girl Pregnant location design.
Script Editor: Janis Cole
Janis Cole is an award-winning filmmaker and screenwriter (Genie Award, Writer’s Guild Top Ten, Toronto Arts Award). She ran the inaugural two seasons of the Screenwriter’s Mentorship Program for the Toronto International Film Festival, has reviewed film for NOW Magazine and writes film commentary for publications including POV and Montage. She is the Script Editor for the animated Web Series, How to Get a Girl Pregnant.
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