Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Revolutionary Voices: A Last Muster Film

I received this information from Maureen Taylor and Pam Pacelli:




At some point in our lives we have all studied the American Revolution.. For most of us it seems long ago and far away, but it doesn’t have to...
Ten years ago, I was presented with an old photograph and asked to analyze it. Suddenly, I realized that I was looking into the face of someone who was a young adult during the Revolutionary War! While it may seem surprising, many of our founding countrymen and women lived into the photographic age…and I discovered that more than 200 years later, I could look directly into their faces.
I was mesmerized. I wanted to find as many of these photos as possible. My ten year journey led me through databases, private collections, and museum holdings, into small towns and large urban areas. So far, I have located over 200 of these images. Some of them are profiled in my two volumes: The Last Muster: Images of the Revolution (Kent State University Press, 2009) and The Last Muster: Faces of the Revolution (in press, 2013).
Now I’m partnering with award-winning Verissima Productions of Cambridge, MA to bring the photos, and the stories behind them, to film. We’ll see soldiers, slaves, pacifists, and children and hear about their stories during a time when the colonists risked everything in a time of great uncertainty. Viewers will also go with me on my journey as the “photo detective”, searching for images and records, locating places where subjects lived, and interviewing descendants to create a correspondence between past and present. 
In order to  produce and distribute “Revolutionary Voices” we need to raise a total of $225,000. Together we already spent numerous in-kind hours in pre-production. We need this initial funding to get our project up and running. As with any film our biggest challenge is starting production. 
We are seeking $27,500 through your pledges to begin shooting.
“Revolutionary Voices” is not just the culmination of a professional project, but also a labor of love. Our passion is being able to share the stories of these extraordinary people. By becoming a backer of “Revolutionary Voices” you will help shine a new light on this on this vital, but sometimes remote, chapter of our American experience.
More information about this "KickStarter" campaign, and an opportunity to contribute to it, can be found at:  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lastmusterfilm/revolutionary-voices-a-last-muster-film
Maureen Taylor has a two-minute introductory video available at http://www.lastmusterfilm.com/video-announcement.html
There is a Revolutionary Voices: A Last Muster Film blog at http://www.lastmusterfilm.com/revolutionary-voices-blog.html with interesting posts.

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