Hello world,
My name's Luca, and I've almost finished 'The Doula', but I need your help to pay our wonderful animator and composer, and get this film out to the wide world!
Me and Jo...
This is an important film about the state of giving birth in the modern era. As traditional ways of living change dramatically, we are losing touch with our own instincts; our first-born child is often the first baby we will have ever held, and giving birth has become a terrifying prospect. We have record numbers of high-intervention births worldwide and trauma related to them. This film is a portrait of Jo Piercey, a birth-doula of 10 years, and her friends who have a message to share about the beauty of what birth can be: whether at home, in a birth-centre, or in hospital.
"We need to find that sense of profound awe again... about what a woman's body can do."
Made up of a series of interviews I took with my mother over the last two years and archive footage, this is a deeply personal passion project that I'm so close to finishing. I want it to be the best it can be and accessible to everyone. To be the best it can be, we're animating a section, paying for music rights, having music composed and paying a sound designer.
Here is the amazing Ewa Smyk's animation: https://ewasmyk.com/
And the awesome composer Ollie Dickson's music project: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3Q2M9TPSdCOUOw0IStqvdI?si=RzB7ZDuMRl6xdC_HPmEcJQ
You can check out more of my work here: https://www.awevofilms.com/
As you're probably aware, animating and composing takes time and resources... more than an independent film-maker can afford. I hope you can join us on this journey and get this film to a wide audience.
Any extra money raised will go towards further film festival submission fees, which can be surprisingly expensive. Film festivals are the best way to get your film out there and potentially find distributors, i.e. reaching a much wider audience over time than we can on our own. If we raise over a lot more than expected, we will make a donation to https://www.sands.org.uk/ This has been a shoe-string budget passion project from its inception, and none of the money raised will go into our own pockets.
Thank you!
Luca (and Jo)
P.S. For all those who donate, we shall be organising a special screening :)