Grassroots Media. By the People. For the People.
Draft Eleven Films
DemCast’s Campaign to Crowdsource Funding for the Top Video Team in the Resistance
by Nick Knudsen, DemCast Founder & Executive Director
A few weeks ago, I met my friends James and Tiffany of Eleven Films for a beer. They’d just recently released their greatest short cinematic masterpiece, Midnight in Washington, which now has nearly 9 million views.
Post-release beers have been our tradition ever since the Friday after the 2018 midterms, when I learned they were a local team. I had been blown away by their debut viral video – the Blue Wave Trailer – and I had to meet them in person.
James and Tiffany are funny, lighthearted and humble – a husband-wife film duo with exceptional storytelling skills. To be honest, when I originally met them, I was surprised that they weren’t hired guns or long-time political operatives. In fact, they’re the complete opposite: lifelong activists – grassroots to the core. They aren’t an established political media team.
When they created the Blue Wave Trailer in 2018, they had no idea it would get over 5 million views in the final days before the midterms. They were pretty overwhelmed by it (in a good way).
Fast forward 15 months, and here we were again, sitting in a Portland, Oregon brewpub celebrating another viral masterpiece. They were still overwhelmed by the astounding response to Midnight in Washington, but in a more determined way. James and Tiffany had started to come to grips with the real impact they were having in the national discourse.
Despite all of these amazing political videos they’d created, the duo was still piecing together paid work, making things like book trailers for publishing companies. Good, solid work for sure. But their inner activists were itching to maximize their impact during this national emergency that is the 2020 election.
So, as we sipped our IPAs, they dropped the bomb: they were planning to abandon all of their paid work and produce political videos for the remainder of the 2020 cycle.
The activist in me was absolutely elated to hear this. The friend was concerned.
So I proposed that we join forces – bring together Eleven Films and DemCast, the non-profit I’d formed in 2019 to boost grassroots media. Connecting their film-making abilities to our nationwide network of digital and on-the-ground activists was a total no-brainer for all three of us.
Imagine: a film outfit the caliber of Eleven Films working on behalf of and alongside the grassroots activists who will spend 2020 working their asses off to save democracy.
So, here we are. This is our campaign: DemCast is asking the Resistance – all you Blue Wavers & Democracy Warriors out there to help us crowdsource funds for Eleven Films to do this work full time. All year.
They’re committed to churn out the content. Let’s help them keep the lights on.
Let’s #DraftElevenFilms.
In addition to donating, please consider sharing our campaign on social media!