The “Columbus” movie’s Kickstarter distribution campaign in conjunction with the Sundance Institute has been shelved.
“The idea of funding distribution didn’t catch fire with the Kickstarter community,” said Michelle Satter, founding director of the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program.
“For that reason, we’ve decided to turn to other sources to fund the fellowship.”
The Kickstarter campaign began May 2 with a $150,000 goal to help with distribution costs of the “Columbus” film and “Unrest,” a documentary about a woman’s long illness.
Within three days, it reached $18,000 before the campaign was suspended.
A Sundance spokesman said the institute is still committed to some financial and in-kind support to distribute the two independent films, but the institute representative said it’s too early to know what those other sources could be, or whether financial support eventually still could equal the original $150,000 funding goal for the two movies.
“We remain committed to supporting the distribution of these films and to helping independent filmmakers innovate in distribution to further the sustainability of their careers and the reach of their work,” Satter said.
The Utah-based institute, founded in 1981 by actor and director Robert Redford, advances the work of independent storytellers in film and theater. It produces the Sundance Film Festival, where “Columbus” and other independent films were screened earlier this year.
Giulia Caruso, a “Columbus” producer who has been working with Sundance on distribution, said the end of the Kickstarter campaign doesn’t affect filmmakers’ release plans in any way.
The movie will open Aug. 4 in New York and Los Angeles, and is scheduled for its local premiere Sept. 1 at YES Cinema, where it will be shown for about a month.
“Everything’s still a go,” said Randy Allman, executive director of the Lincoln-Center Neighborhood Family Center that operates YES Cinema.
“Columbus” highlights the story of Casey (Haley Lu Richardson), who lives with her mother in a small Midwestern town haunted by the promise of Modernism. Jin (John Cho), a visitor from the other side of the world, attends to his dying father.
In their friendship, they find respite in one another and the architecture and its symbolism that surrounds them.
The film was shot in July and August last year in and around downtown Columbus.
