Iraq or bust!

December 31, 2003 12:09 PM

Iraq or bust! Usama Alshaibi, an Iraqi-American filmmaker whose flight from Saddam's Iraq and experiences in the U.S. were recently featured in Studs Terkel's latest book, is returning to Iraq after over 20 years to film a documentary, and is using his weblog and website to raise funds for the trip. Contributors will be given a producer credit, so this might be your big chance to make it on IMDB someday.
posted by insomnia_lj (1 comment total)

This isn't a comment on Iraq, Alshaibi's artistic expression, or even his message but when will filmmakers stop with the "donate and I'll give you film credit" pitch? I live in LA and every 6 months or so I hear that same pitch. Very, very few of the films ever make their money back so the number of "investors" is usually limited to friends and a few business contacts who are guilted into making a token donation. Sure, every once in a blue moon somebody works their ass off and gets the full amount they were trying to raise but truth be told they could have just as easily got the money via professional investors or a studio.

I did some work for one guy who had that same idea (to make a film financed with money from a website) and of the $1.2 million he was looking to raise, he raised about $200. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get my last invoice submitted quick enough and he figured out that he wasn't even going to make back the cost of the site, let alone his $1.2 million, and stiffed me. :-)
posted by billman at 5:56 PM on January 1, 2004