NonDē 50 Films Project Update: How to Start Financing, Crowdfunding Meeting, & a Legal Lab
Plus, see who's made it to post-production already! Whew!
Getting right into it today, friends. Let’s go!
Here’s What’s Happening This Week:
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“Don’t think of them as financiers, think of them as partners.” — Ted Hope
We had a full house for Ted Hope’s ND50 Office Hours last week where he talked all about:
staged financing for distribution
the three phases of distribution
growing your audience
finding your first donors
developing speaking gigs as a revenue stream
and so much more!
You can check out my detailed notes on the Notion Dashboard here:
My biggest takeaway: Every action of the non-dependent filmmaking process should fulfill more than just one goal.
For instance: perhaps in exchange for a donation to your post-production, you’re speaking at a conference, and at that conference, you show a clip of your in-progress film and get audience feedback you can apply to the edit, and perhaps you connect 1:1 with certain audience members at this conference who you identify as not just “audience members” but potential future partners or collaborators.
Now you’ve taken one action (a speaking gig) and just checked 5 boxes with it: fundraising, marketing, test screening, community-building, identifying new partnerships.
When we can see the full filmmaking process before us, and see it as a process that we take responsibility for, we will come up with unique and original ideas to juice the most out of every action we take.
Exciting stuff, no?
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Get Caught Up on Our Current ND50 Initiatives
NonDē Creative Development: Projects in Motion
NDCD is a works-in-progress development lab, driven by writer’s questions of their work, and facilitated through community. Work can be at any phase of development (from script to rough cut, from logline to pitch deck, if it’s in-process and you want feedback on it, it’s welcome.)
Gitanjali Kapila and David Brownstein are leading the effort and if you want to participate please fill out this form:
Detailed breakdown of NONDĒ CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT: PROJECTS IN MOTION on the Notion Dashboard Under Meeting Recaps > 1.16.26 Development & Microcinema Meeting
THE CIRCUIT: Microcinema Third Spaces
THE CIRCUIT is a collection of microcinemas (pop up or permanent) throughout the country, run by filmmakers and coordinated through some of the good folks in ND50: jake S. weisman, Taylor Lewis, and Avi Setton.
By building the microcinema circuit, we’ll be building a new alternative distribution road map. To learn more and get involved, join the Discord:
Detailed breakdown of THE CIRCUIT on the Notion Dashboard Under Meeting Recaps > 1.16.26 Development & Microcinema Meeting
NonDē Filmmaking Legal Lab
Rekola [Film Producer] is doing something very cool, which he’ll speak more about during the February ND50 General Meeting. But for now, jump into the beta testing for his legal lab.
Here’s a teaser before Feb:
The NonDē Screening Venue List
Michael Lavine is compiling a screening venue list across the US and needs your help! He is actively looking for 6 volunteers to help input data from a few existing lists of Arthouse Cinemas that we have ready to go. DM Michael if you are interested. Or start entering your own city’s cinema info (and check out how the list is filling up) here:
NonDē Screening Venue List
Hey Filmstackers! Imagine you’ve finally finished your NonDē film and you’re ready to go out on the road and show your movie to the world. Where do you begin?
Missed a meeting? ND50 General Meeting Recaps are on the ND50 Notion Dashboard.
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Crowdfunding Meeting coming up this week!
Make sure you’re registered below.
THIS FRIDAY! JANUARY 30th | ND50 Office Hours: How to Craft a Compelling Crowdfunding or Financing Campaign with Jon Stahl
When: Friday January 30th at 11am PT / 2pm ET / 7pm GMT
Register: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/EvWnvm_FQu2zDxBrO_gmkQ
How you ask for money is a key part of whether or not you can raise it. Jon Stahl has experience both raising $120k through crowdfunding and pitching VCs. In this office hours, he will offer recommended best practices on how to position your film to crowdfund and raise investments and take questions.
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This Week: ND50 in Action
Lex Powell wrapped a short film!
Sasha Santiago announced his film and shared his plans for how it will expand…
Taylor Lewis is doing, well, lol, everything!…
Jennifer Esposito is balancing writing and meetings with life…
Maris Lidaka worked in Resolve AND on cold outreach…
Nick Geisler is location scouting…
Monique Sorgen has made it to post-production…
Who else is tracking an ND50 log like this?
Drop a comment and let us know where you are in your process right now!
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Keep the faith, film friends!
Last week I posted a couple of videos on TikTok because I’m a glutton for punishment. In those videos, I talked about the NonDē 50 Films Project specifically. The majority of folks responded positively, but there were a few who had (understandable) hesitations.
Responses like this came through:
“Collaboration sounds nice, but the industry is too competitive… can this really work?”
“Marketing is the issue, no one will see it”
“We already tried this with web3/film3 and it didn’t work”
I interpret this a good thing. When people are really invested in learning more, they ask questions, surface their own fears or worries, and object.
Growing a movement requires engagement with these worries and objections. We’re much stronger when we address them. The more we engage with objections/questions/concerns now with people outside of FilmStack, the better our language will become as we’re fundraising, marketing, distributing, and doing it all over again next year.
And this is where the “think beyond one film” mindset really serves both the movement and our individual movies.
I find it ridiculously less intimidating to go to a potential partner (investor, donor) and say, “My film is part of a movement, and here is what the movement is all about. You’re not just investing in my film, you’re investing in something bigger.”
So to the question “Can this really work without people competing?” this was my answer:
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I wonder, what’s yours?
IMPORTANT INFO
If you’re not sure what the NonDē 50 is, start here:
WHAT IS NONDĒ?
NonDē cinema is non-dependent on the current Hollywood ecosystem, and instead asserts the creative, financial, distribution and all forms of cultural control as the intentional responsibility of the individual team. Collectively, the workers in the NonDē movement leverage collaboration over competition, the sharing of institutional knowledge, and mutual support systems to help amplify both the individual films and a bigger movement that prioritizes the sustainability of the art, artist, audience, and cinema ecosystem.
WHAT IS NONDĒ 50?
It’s a coordinated and organized effort to get 50 NonDē films made in 2026.
WHY DO WE NEED IT?
This is a fundamental question I address in the original essay (below), but the TL;DR version is that our individual films gain more traction and assert more impact when they’re in the context of each other. I look at NonDē as a political movement and the films are the individual races for office. When one of us does better, we all do better.
WHO IS INVOLVED?
Everyone from indie veterans to first time filmmakers!
Here is the official list of everyone signed up so far. Add your info and join up.
Of course, you and I both know none of this would be happening if Ted Hope hadn’t written and encouraged us all to get on the non-dependent train.
Here’s the original post with more info:
✅ Running list of all NonDē 50 Films Projects HERE. Sign up if you haven’t already!
✅ Check out the ND50 Notion Dashboard HERE.
When we share data & knowledge, the NonDē opportunities are everywhere…
Where's the Canadian arm of this?
Woop! So excited. Hope it’s okay if I bring a PowerPoint…