Indie Film International LLC

The story of Indie Film International LLC and our first production Border State begins in Tucson, Arizona in 2010 with the broadest and strictest anti-illegal immigration measure passed in the United States, the notorious Arizona Senate Bill "SB 1070." Mass protests immediately began in southern Arizona in reaction to what was considered by many in Arizona and around the world as a law legalizing racial profiling. 

By 2014 we had four completed screenplays and discussed which one we would attempt to get produced first. Based on the events in 2010 which had increasingly polarized not only Arizona but all the Southern Border states in the US, and made a spectacle around the world with each passing year, we handily decided on Border State. 

First we tried to find outside producers and movie studios

In 2015 after several reviewers offered their input on the script, the revised Border State script was completed and we tried at first to find a buyer of the script. Being new to the film industry, we had read popular instructional books on the techniques of writing treatments, synopsis, letters of inquiry, and making cold calls. We spent nearly a year with using these techniques and got nowhere. In 2016 I met an independent film producer in the corporate commercial advertising business in Tucson, AZ and became friends. Before his success took off and took him from Tucson to NYC, he offered me a reality check on the real scoop of how independent films go from script to screen: a screenwriter becomes a producer. None of the books I  had read mentioned anything about this. It was a true eye opener and a turning point. In return for writing content for some of his commercials, he began to teach me the basics of producing and he created our company logo which we still use today.  During this time I also became a board member of the nonprofit Independent Film Arizona whose mission is to help independent film makers make and promote independent film in Arizona. We held monthly well-attended meetings where leaders in all aspects of film making gave instructional workshops, and I continued to learn the craft of film producing and made many solid professional connections. 

While networking and building relationships, I met and became good friends with the owner of the top independent film studio in Tucson, Southern Arizona Video Productions. It is his studio with which we are collaborating on the filming of Border State. Additionally,  they have granted us $80,000 in-kind production services. I took a trip to Tucson in February of this year to secure this agreement and have their signed letter in-hand. They agree that Border State is a timely project with an entertaining script they look forward to filming. Like most of the crew and cast who have read the script, their reaction is, "It's going to be a lot of fun!" And that I think is important for a serious topic such as the immigration crisis along the Southern Border. Having a fun project keeps film makers from burning out and keeps them focused and fired up. 

In 2017 I moved to Boulder City, Nevada outside of Las Vegas, to take a better-paying job that offered the complete flexibility to work from home. I used this flexibility and significant increase in salary to both strategically continue working towards building an independent film company, and having the financial means to invest my own money in expenses to do so. Wasting no time in building relationships here as well, I became a volunteer with the Dam Short Film Festival's film screening committee and this year was voted on their Board of Directors as the Festival's Strategic Planning Director. I am well-placed here as well with film and business connections to Las Vegas who may be interested in investing in Border State once this funding campaign goes live.

In 2018 we created a 21 page Lookbook for Border State whose components we also use for our 2019 website. It helped us to: firmly conceptualize the strategic plan of the production, create a  vision statement, helped us to map our place of potential revenue in the comedy film market, and to make a compelling case that comedy has a rich history in American film for promoting progressive attitudes during times of crisis and upheaval. We take our cue from such iconic movies such as Peter Sellers' Dr. Strangelove. 

The following table provides a comparative analysis of how Border State fits within the current independent comedy film market: 

Table 1. Comparative Rate of Return in Successful Independent Comedy Genre 2015-2018

Sources: IMDb Pro/Box Office Mojo                      

                                                                Budget                                Gross US Sales

The Big Short                                    $28,000,000                              $70,259,870

The Disaster Artist                          $10,000,000                              $21,120,616

The Big Sick                                     $5,000,000                                 $42,873,127

Becoming a comedy film with true purpose 

With production company Indie Film International LLC now in 2019 a fully-licensed S-corp and a business bank account set up for escrow donations to complement and buttress the investment funds through Wefunder, and a completely retooled website completed and ready to go live, we have set our business intention on being a true film with purpose. 

We had known for years that Border State has timely relevance not only for the border crisis along the Southern Border, but for border crisis around the world. However, a crucial turning point in making our film be more than timely fun entertainment, was the news this year of the father and his toddler daughter drowning in the Rio Grande River in Texas trying to reach America on an approved humanitarian VISA only to be held in confinement in Mexico indefinitely. This shocked and grieved us into immediate action. 

I as producer have decided to donate my producer's fee and part of the proceeds of either ticket sales and/or future film sale to a major movie house to RAICES based in San Antonio, Texas. They are a nonprofit legal aid agency helping immigrants in crisis along the Southern Border. From a budgeting standpoint, this will I believe help us to attach quality actors and actresses for a reduced day rate on set fee. They can say to their fans that they are supporting a worthwhile film project. It's a win-win that boosts both our credibility as a newly-established film company and our profile with donors and investors as a film with a purpose. 

We are so truly grateful to our growing fan and supporter base on social media, interested investors and donors, and to you Wefunder for helping start up companies like Indie Film International LLC to both produce a potentially profitable and timely comedy feature film and to make a crucial difference along the way.