3 simple ways

you can help us get this balloon

off the ground:

2. Share our campaign link on your social media (Facebook, twitter, instagram, email, text, what-have-you) --> copy/paste this: https://www.seedandspark.com/fund/the-boy-and-the-balloon-short-film-gay-drama#story

3. Pledge - This will by far help us out THE MOST. Making a movie doesn't come cheap. Any amount will do! You’ll receive different perks from the list above. Every dollar counts!

Why this film? Why now?

I’m passionate about telling LGBTQ stories and hope this campaign will empower our community to make more films and voice more stories about the LGBTQ experience.

On top of that, I struggle with anxiety and self-esteem issues that can, at often times, paralyze me in social situations. This subject is very personal to me and is the basis of my film.

Today, the United States can feel like a very different place. There are powerful men in high places abusing their power and dividing people. With all that happening, I believe it’s an important time to take control of what we can and affect change in the ways we best know how. For me, that’s making art. In particular, this film.

“The Boy and the Balloon” is a passion project of mine that explores the effects our insecurities can have on our relationships with our friends and loved ones. I struggle with a variety of social anxieties, so this subject is important to me. The story is set within the context of a gay open relationship. A dynamic where “everyday” insecurities are magnified and can bubble up so intensely to a point where you feel like you just might pop. We've all had our moments of insecurity and anxiety, and for some, it is incredibly difficult to speak up for what you want. This film will explore those mixed emotions - a tug of war between expectation and reality.

Plans for the film?

“The Boy and the Balloon” is an extraction from a full length feature we are currently developing. We will be submitting this short to festivals (domestic and international) in hopes to garner a following that will help us in getting the feature produced later down the line.

Visually, we plan to lean into more unconventional ways of storytelling by exploring the psychology and motivations of our characters through manipulating time and space, and playing with light and color.

We have enlisted the help of two powerful international female filmmakers to bring my film to life with their loving touch: Producer, Monica Vilela (founder of MoMi Films in NYC, originally from Brazil), and Director of Photography, Sahsa Miasnikova, from Belarus.

Why pledge to our project?

Our team strives to give our audience a story they can relate to, learn from, and be inspired by. There is so much room for LGBTQ stories to be told and infinite layers of LGBTQ characters to be expressed on screen. We want you to join us in creating a film that gives a breath of honesty and truth to the representation of the gay community in cinema.

In addition to making a beautiful film, we will share every step of our production process! From pre-production, to behind-the-scenes on set, and right through post-production, we'll give you an inside look at our creative process. We hope this will inspire our followers, and other filmmakers and actors to create opportunity for themselves.

Where your contribution will go & what you get:

Every cent will be put toward the production value of our film. This is the lowest budget that will allow us to make the film we want with the right crew, talent, and resources - including: camera, light, and sound equipment rentals; feeding our cast and crew; insurance and locations; production design and marketing; transportation, and paying our crew and cast.

Visit the "Wishlist" tab at the top to learn more about the specific departments our budget will go toward.

For your contriburtion, you'll recieve the perks called out in the "incentives" collumn as well as our undying love and gratitude! <3

Contribute or Share!

A lot of love is going into this film and we hope you can help us in making this project a reality. Please consider contributing to our film as we hope our project will inspire other members of our community to create their own work and band together to strengthen our voice in cinema. Every dollar counts!

OR, you can simply FOLLOW here! All you have to click the *FOLLOW* button at the top of the page and create an account and <3 our campaign. It only takes seconds. :)

Thank you so much for taking the time!