Help Kickstart a Movie About US Public Libraries!

Have you heard the news? Some serious filmmakers are working on a movie about public libraries! They have a good start, but now they need our help. They have set up a Kickstarter fund-raising campaign to get money to finish the film. Donations must be in by midnight on Oct. 26.

Details from the Urban Library Council, one of the sponsors:

Filmmakers Dawn Logsdon and Lucie Faulknor, with Executive Producer Stanley Nelson, are asking library lovers across America to help them make "Free for All: Inside the Public Library," the first major documentary project about our nation’s most beloved and most threatened public institution. Producer/Director Logsdon enthuses, “This is a great American story that has not been told before. We feel it’s urgent to get this film done and out there, while so many communities are debating the future of their local libraries.” 

The filmmakers, who are inspired by their own love for libraries, have launched an online funding campaign for "Free for All" and need to raise $75,000 by midnight on Oct. 26, 2014.

Why you should donate: 

• You can give any amount, $1 or more.
• The project has been vetted and backed with R&D funding by big organizations (National Endowment for the Humanities, California Humanities, the San Francisco Foundation, the Creative Work Fund, the Eastman Fund, United for Libraries, Urban Library Council, Urban Libraries Unite, EveryLibrary, and more).
• You can pay by credit card or check.
• Donations are tax-deductible.
• You can get cool prizes for helping out! 
• Kickstarter is "all or nothing." If the filmmakers don't reach the goal of $75,000, no pledges are collected and they get nothing at all.

I like what creators Logsdon and Faulknor say about their project:

Big decisions about the future of the American public library --- decisions that will resonate for generations --- are being made NOW in local communities across the country. How these decisions will be made and who will make them are questions at the heart of our documentary.
We're an experienced team of award-winning filmmakers who are passionate about public libraries and their role in our democracy. Many people think of libraries as quaint book repositories growing obsolete in our digital age. We're on a mission to dispel that myth.

Here are a few more details... I hope they convince you to click over to the Kickstarter page, check it out for yourself, and make a donation! 

Set in public libraries around the country, "Free for All" will be a 90-minute film, intended for PBS broadcast, that explores a “day-in-the-life” of the American public library, from open to closing --- along with compelling chapters of library history. This cinematic library “road trip” will feature a stunning mosaic of stories, architecture and personalities that bring to life the public library experience and the urgent issues libraries face today. From celebrities to schoolteachers to poets and new immigrants, the film and its associated digital project explore why people are using their public libraries in record numbers and the threat to democracy if they were to become extinct.