Documentary on Balinese Healers a World Away From "eat pray love" Filmmaker Pitches Online to Raise Funds Independently
Daniel McGuire, a Boston-based documentary filmmaker, will be seeking alternative funding for a documentary on Balinese traditional healers. He will have 4 weeks to raise the funds for editing and post production.
- (1888PressRelease) August 14, 2011 - Documentary on Balinese Healers a World Away From "eat pray love"
Filmmaker Pitches Online to Raise Funds Independently
Daniel McGuire, a Boston-based documentary filmmaker, will be seeking alternative funding for a documentary on Balinese traditional healers. He will have 4 weeks to raise the funds for editing and post production.
The film, BALIAN, is a portrait of three traditional Balinese healers, known as "dukun" or "balian". McGuire, who is fluent in Indonesian, started filming in 1996 and shot footage as recently as 2010. During that period, one of the healers he documented, Ketut Liyer, became famous for his role in the book and film "eat pray love". The film also documents the impact celebrity has had on Liyer. A hospitalization for exhaustion in 2010 was reported to have been brought on by the demands of western tourists seeking "healing."
While Ketut Liyer is now the most well-known healer in Bali, he is upstaged in the film by a healer named Mangku Made Pogog. "Pogog is one of the most amazing people I've ever met." McGuire notes. "He has a kind of energy and charisma that is really mind-boggling. The only person I've ever seen who came close is Iggy Pop - though that's probably a weird analogy! Check out the trailer on Kickstarter if you don't believe me." Another healer in the film is Mangku Alit, a healer who falls into trance and is possessed by a spirit who dispenses advice to patients. "She's a force of nature, and very grounded in her community. She operates in a different realm than the rest of us."
The long shooting period wasn't planned. McGuire shot a short piece on healers that aired on the Discovery Channel in 1998. But he returned to Bali regularly, and touched base with the healers he met in 1996, shooting follow-up material. "A very different story began to form over time - a story about the effect of globalization on traditional people and traditional belief systems." The story arc is also stronger - "We also check in on people who were treated for illnesses back in 1996 and get a follow-up. And some of the results can, actually, be called miraculous."
In line with Kickstarter rules, filmmakers have a brief window of time to raise all the funds, or the project receives nothing. McGuire's film has a 30-day fundraising window, from start to finish. If the allotted budget ($15,000 US) isn't raised before September 7, all pledges are cancelled and no money changes hands. "It is a grueling process in some ways - trying to locate people who might be interested in supporting the film, staying in touch with them, and creating a community around a film - but that now goes with the territory of being an independent filmmaker."
To learn more, visit the project's pitch page here:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/danielmcguire/balian-traditional-healers-of-bali-a-documentary
Contact:
Daniel McGuire
dandmcguire ( @ ) gmail dot com
774 454 4019
Twitter: ( @ ) balihealermovie
http://balihealer.com
http://www.facebook.com/Balihealer
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