Creative Scotland Crowdmatch has provided £3,000 of match funding
The Wetland Short Documentary Film
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Closing soon
Don't miss your chance to donate
Aim
Finish and promote my first short documentary film about a father and daughter fighting to save their wetland community from being destroyed
Logline
A farmer and his biologist daughter lead efforts to save their thousand year old wetland community from being destroyed by Mexico City.
A message from Director Mat
Thank you for supporting my debut short documentary film The Wetland!
If you feel you can help in any way, whether that be through making a donation or sharing this crowdfund with your family and friends, then myself and all of our team in Scotland and Mexico would be incredibly grateful.
So far, The Wetland has been completed by my own self-funding, and with some generous support from a company in Mexico.
And now we just need a bit of extra help from people like you so we can share the film with audiences in Scotland, and Mexico, and hopefully around the world.
To do this I’ll be completing a 5:1 surround sound mix of the film with our award-winning audio post-production team over in Mexico City, so the film is ready to be shown in cinemas.
While I'm there I will attend a private screening of the film inside the wetland itself, to say thank you to all the members of the Chinampero community that took part in the film.
Back in Scotland I’ll be creating the final film trailer and some short teasers with a film editor to help promote the film online.
Then our main goal will be to find a media distribution company who will broadcast The Wetland to audiences around the world. To find a distributor we will be submitting the film to film festivals across Scotland, the UK, and internationally. I will attend as many of these festivals as possible, and doing as much industry networking and promotion as I can, including attending or participating in talks and events and screenings of the film.
How your donations will be invested.
£3100 - Travel costs for attending national and international film festivals and doing in-person networking and promotion for the next eighteen months, to help secure a film distribution deal.
£2000 - Travel costs to complete the 5:1 surround sound cinema mix in Mexico. And attend the private screening for the community.
£900 - Hire an editor to help create the trailer and promo teasers.
Ultimately, the more funding we can raise the more festivals and events I will be able to attend and the more people will be able to see The Wetland. So any extra donations beyond our target will go towards more festivals and events in the future.
Also very importantly - thanks to Creative Scotland’s generous Crowdmatch scheme, they will double every donation up to £250!! Making your donation go twice as far.
Your valuable support will be making a huge difference, both for promoting the film and the story of the Chinampero community. It will also showcase the hard work and talent of all the amazing creatives from both Scotland and Mexico who helped make the film.
Meet the team
Director & Producer Mat Hay (centre) is also an award winning documentary photographer from Edinburgh, Scotland. His previous photo project about the Chinampero community was published in The Guardian and exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery and Royal Geographic Society in London.
Producer Gabriela Mercado (left) is a Mexican filmmaker, working at the intersection of cinema, human rights, and environmental justice. Having worked with the Chinampero community for many years, Gabi has been maintaining a close connection with all of the community at the heart of our film.
Mat and Gabi have been honoured to work with Local Producer and our Cultural Consultant Mario Rufino (right). Mario is a traditional Chinampero farmer and teacher, and artist from San Gregorio Atlapulco on the edge of the wetland.
Sound Design and final 5:1 cinema audio mix is by César González Cortés & Alejandro Díaz Sánchez at Hasan Estudio in Mexico City. Between them, César and Alejandro have worked on a huge range of films, including both the OSCAR and BAFTA winning films Sound of Metal, and Nomadland.
The soundtrack was created in collaboration with Gav Sutherland, a well known electronic music producer and multi-instrumentalist from Edinburgh, whose extensive career has seen him produce a wide range of music and audio visual projects.
Iain Pennington is a highly experienced Colour Grader based in Edinburgh, working across feature films, commercials, narrative shorts, and documentaries.
Kieran Gosney is a film editor whose documentary films have won numerous awards including two Scottish BAFTAS.
Our film poster and text design has been a collaboration between London based photographic retoucher Kurt Angus, and Mexico City based designer Ollinca Torres.
Thank you so much again for taking an interest and supporting The Wetland!
It means the world to all of us on the team.
If you would like to learn more please visit:
www.thewetlandfilm.com
Funding method
All or nothing – this project will only receive pledges if it reaches its target of £6,000 by 19th July 2026 at 11:59pm