“River” explores the nuances of queer identity and importance of true friendship through the lens of a genderqueer college student who gradually realizes their self worth. Our team aims to showcase a story of queerness and coming of age.

River follows a genderqueer college student who attends a disco party the night before graduation. What begins as a night of disco quickly transforms into a series of events that catapult River into a journey of self love and personal growth. Loosely based on personal experiences, this film illustrates a strong queer lead who struggles with social anxiety, but overcomes a whirlwind evening with the help of their girlfriends. 

As a genderqueer Latiné individual, I rarely see characters like me portrayed on screen. I want to make a short film that illustrates the complexities of social anxiety and detail the beauty of being young and queer.  My film showcases the strength of true friendship and how life saving a group of girlfriends can be.

When I was learning about my queerness growing up, I had a lot of fear and anxiety as a member of my Latiné family. I repressed a lot of feelings and wasn’t able to be who I truly wanted to be until later on in my twenties.

With this film, I will depict a character who's queerness is authentic and vivid, while also showing an interpretation of their anxiety manifested during a college party and how that transforms their evening into a psychological journey of self love. River makes mistakes, learns from them, and evolves into a stronger person in the end.

MOOD BOARD

WE NEED YOUR HELP TO GET THIS FILM ACROSS THE FINISH LINE

As young filmmakers, self-funded projects take a hardworking cast and crew to create a film, and we need your help to make this story reach its full potential.

Filmmaking is expensive. Your support will ensure that this story is told properly. The funds earned will go towards renting all camera and lighting equipment, production design costs, location rentals, quality food, post production costs such as editing, coloring, sound mixing and so much more. 

If we exceed our goal, more money would be used to fund nicer costumes, hair and makeup stylists, and even better equipment and lighting. The more we raise, the prettier the film will look! 

We plan on following daily COVID-19 testing, and all crew will be required to be vaccinated and boosted and follow masking and social distance protocols on set. 

Once completed, we plan on submitting the film to LGBTQ+ centered film festivals throughout the year.

River will further showcase my ability as a filmmaker and actor. I aim to continue to make films that focus on Latiné and queer characters, and this film will solidify my ability to tell these stories.

"Of the 1,300 top-grossing films released from 2007-2019, there were only 12 individual Latinx directors." - Observer

"Data showed that less than 6% of characters featured in films released in 2019 were Hispanic or Latino." - Insider

There are many stories about the Latiné and queer experience that have yet to be told. Why not help fund a short film that includes both these narratives!

The only way we will reach our crowdfunding goal is if we reach beyond our networks. If you'd like to be a part of supporting queer Latine filmmakers and performers, YOU can make a difference in our success!

Please share our campaign via your social media, email, word-of-mouth, or however you want! We can't do this without you!

Here's an example. Feel free to copy and paste!

Help filmmaker @joshuaalfredohernandez by supporting their queer coming of age short film RIVER which follows a genderqueer college student who attends a disco party that catapults them into a journey of self love and personal growth.

Join them on @seedandspark: https://seedandspark.com/fund/river-1

Be sure to follow our social media accounts for updates and please consider contributing to our campaign. We cannot make this happen without you. Thank you!

- RIVER TEAM