Five Crowdfunding Campaigns You Should Consider This Week

On the heels of last year's successful crowdfunding campaign for I am Divine, award-winning director Jeffrey Schwarz's soon-to-be definitive biographical portrait of Harris Glenn Milstead, the drag artists who transformed himself from a bullied schoolyard fat kid to a larger than life personality and underdog royalty as his alter-ego Divine. Divine stood up for millions of gay men and women, female impersonators, punk rockers, the ample figured, and countless other socially ostracized people. While the campaign only raised $38,574 of Schwarz's $100,000 goal, IndieGoGo (unlike Kickstarter) offers a flexible funding campaign so he was able to use all that cash to start the doc. We decided to look at four other crowdfunded LGBT projects worthy of a gander.

Project:The Gay Romeo in Festival/Tokyo 2012 (Kickstarter): Signapore-based artist Daniel Kok has been invited to revise his acclaimed solo dance, The Gay Romeo, at the Festival/Tokyo, is one of the most important contemporary danceevents in Asia. Unfortunately, he says, "while the National Arts Council has generally been very supportive of my work, this is the first time I've been rejected in my application for a travel grant because the government of Singapore does not fund works that 'advocate or lobby for lifestyles seen as objectionable by the general public'." The best part? He's only $400 short of his $3,000 goal. (Kickstarter.com)

Project: Friend Film (Indie-Go-Go), the story of two teenagers experiencing the trials and tribulations of growing up gay and transgendered small town America, was created after director Elliot London spent several months on a crosscountry search for what it means to be an LGBT teen today. Two teens, Joseph and Sara, helped him shape the film and serve creative liaisons for the project. So far the Indie-Go-Go project has only raised $5,000 of the $81,000 goal, but there are 24 days left to fund it. (Indiegogo.com/friendfilm)

Project:Black Tar Road (Indie-Go-Go) is a gritty, dark, love story between two women, Heather and Charlie, who meet at a desolate truck stop, fall in love, and try to get sober together despite the bullying they take from the conservative town-folk. Created by former addict Amber Dawn Lee and lesbian actress Noelle Messier, the film will "show the realism behind addiction and behind lesbian/gay bullying which is an epidemic in America." It's made $1,342 of it's $500 goal, with only a couple days left on the ticker. (IndieGoGo.com/backtarroad)

Project: Lesbian Zombies From Outer Space (Indie-Go-Go): When a twentysomething lesbian named Gwen and an average (read: straight) video store clerk discover that the town's women are turning into hot lesbian zombies, they are the only ones who can stop disaster (the zombie part, we assume, not the lesbianism). This low budget popcorn flick didn't meet its goal by the deadline date, but fan action could bring it back. (Indiegogo.com/Lesbian-Zombies-from-Outer-Space)