Two documentarians presented at FilmShop Brooklyn’s most recent meeting: Marisa Miller Wolfson, looking for the group’s thoughts on a new trailer for her soon-to-be-released film Vegucated, and Liz Nord, seeking feedback on interviews shot for in-production work Battle for Jerusalem.
Marisa’s doc follows three people—a college girl, a 20-something guy, and a single mom of two—as they give up all animal products, from meat to leather clothes, during a six-week period. Will the trio have what it takes to stay vegan, and what will they learn about the treatment of animals and themselves in the process? No plot spoilers here, except to say that each of the three gets sufficiently “vegucated” about veganism.
Marisa, a vegan activist with the group Kind Green Planet, wanted to know if her new trailer has the right stuff to go viral on the Internet… and entice people to see the film. If all this vegan talk whets your appetite for Vegucated, Marisa is currently entering festivals with the completed film. Keep your fingers crossed and wish her luck! In the meantime, look for a fantastic promo on the Web soon.
Liz Nord also has a trailer for her documentary Battle for Jerusalem, but Liz’s promo serves a very different purpose—it’s currently featured on the fundraising site indiegogo.com, where Liz hopes to raise the money necessary to edit a longer trailer that she can show to more donors and thereby raise enough to continue filming. While Liz’s promo on IndieGoGo contains stunning footage of Jerusalem, she instead played loosely edited interview footage of six people and asked FilmShop members which interviewees they found most compelling.
Battle for Jerusalem explores divisions between ultra-orthodox v. more secular Jewish residents of Jerusalem as these groups debate how much influence religion should have over civic life. Among Liz’s interview subjects were two artists, a businessman, a neighborhood activist, a political leader, and a student. To the un-initiated eye, all six were fascinating—but Liz wanted to know which characters were strong enough to appear throughout her entire film. For more about the film, to watch the trailer and to donate, visit Liz’s indiegogo page.
