Success: Gosnell Movie hits its funding target

I’ve written about the Gosnell Movie project a few times, conducted several interviews, and donated money to the cause. Now the three independent filmmakers behind this massive crowdfunding effort can celebrate success. With three days to spare, the project met its funding goal of $2.1 million — and attracted more than 23,000 donors. Congratulations to my good friends Phelim McAleer, Ann McIlhenny, and Magda Segieda, all of whom have appeared on my show over the last several weeks of this campaign. This means that Indiegogo will release the funding to the trio, and they can start working on pre-production immediately.

THE CONTROVERSIAL movie about abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell has reached its funding target on the crowdfunding website Indiegogo – smashing a series of records on the way to its $2.1m goal.
Gosnell is now by a huge margin, the most successful film project ever to be on Indiegogo, even beating projects from Hollywood celebrities such as James Franco.

It is also by far the most successful non-celebrity crowdfunded film on ANY crowdfunding platform.

Gosnell has so far raised $2.1m from over 23,000 contributors. The project closes to contributors at midnight Monday May 12th.

Kermit Gosnell was a Philadelphia abortion doctor who is currently serving several life sentences for murdering live, viable babies in his clinic. It is thought in his 40 year career he killed at least hundreds possibly thousands of babies. ABC correspondent Terry Moran described Gosnell as “America’s most successful serial killer.”

His case was particularly controversial because it went mostly unreported by the national media sparking a firestorm over accusations of media bias by pro-choice journalists who did not want to report anything that would reflect badly on abortion.

Producer Phelim McAleer said they were determined to tell the story of the life and crimes of Kermit Gosnell and determined to use crowdfunding to make the movie.

“The media and Hollywood normally love serial killers. There are movies and whole TV series devoted to the genre but for some reason there were no plans to tell the truth about Kermit Gosnell and his crimes. We were determined to change that and to show that their was a public appetite for this truth to be told and that’s why we decided to crowdfund the project.”

Producer Ann McElhinney said they were very grateful that so many people had contributed to ensure the Gosnell Movie gets made. “We are so thankful – it has been an incredibly moving experience.

People have been sending small donations and inspiring messages. They felt compelled, often because of personal experience, to ensure the Gosnell Movie gets made. We are so, so, grateful for them. We will not let them down.”

Producer Magdalena Segieda said she was looking forward to making the movie.

“This will be a TV drama. It will be in every home in America. Americans are fascinated with serial killers but they have never heard of Kermit Gosnell. Because of this crowdfunding campaign Kermit Gosnell’s name will now be as well known as Jodi Arias and Ted Bundy. And that is fitting because Kermit Gosnell killed more than all the other serial killers combined. His story and the stories of his victims will now be told.”

The Producers also announced that they were initiating a “stretch goal”, a procedure introduced by many projects after they reach their initial target. They said their new goal was not financial.

“We want at least 30,000 people to donate to the project – we want to send a message to the networks and cable channels that there is an audience out there and we want to prove that by showing all these people were willing to pay for this film to be made. We want more people to turn up to give even a dollar,” said McAleer.

The stunning success of the grassroots funding for a film about Gosnell should be news far beyond the blogosphere. We’ll see if any mainstream media outlets pick it up, although the Hollywood Reporter has covered this for its industry readers. They can’t do much worse than they did in covering Gosnell himself, which is why the film needs to be made. And now … it will be.

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