Crowdfunder Pick: An American in Texas

This week’s Crowdfunder Pick is An American in Texas, a dramatic exploration of youthful rebellion from Texas native Anthony Pedone.

Anthony Pedone is a moviemaker and festival founder whose directing credits include The Why (2009) and Camp Casserole (2011), and who started the Victoria TX Independent Film Festival, the Self-Medicated Film Expo (RxSM), and Film Exchange. He has also produced, edited and acted in many other independent projects. Pedone gleefully admits to having a “Robin Hood complex” claiming that, “When some establishment says, ‘You can’t do this,’ I say, ‘Watch me sucka.'” A man truly after MovieMaker’s own heart.

An American in Texas is a very personal project for its creator. “An American in Texas, is really our own story and the story of our friends…the story of our generation,” Pedone told us. Set in 1990, against the back drop of the Gulf War, the film follows five young Texans as they struggle to find their own truth and meaning in a befuddling sea of conformist pressure and pro-war propaganda.

“[We want to] express the feelings that I think a lot of us had as 18 to 22-year-olds who were watching the Gulf War unfold in 1990,” Pedone says. “We were in college and all feeling this incredible surge of creativity… ready to go out and change the world, and at the same time we were being force-fed this campaign of über-patriotism and talk about the New World Order.” These feelings of alienation and resistance begin to take shape in the promotional material on the film’s RocketHub page.

Based on the trailer, the story is a dark and feverish depiction of the cultural division caused by the what Pedone views as the false “campaign of patriotism” that accompanied the Gulf War, and has characterized American foreign policy since: a skewed coming of age story, in which maturity is tainted by disillusionment and warped external influence.

The film is co-written and co-directed by longtime Pedone collaborator, Stephen Floyd. The two have been creatively inseparable “for 30 years,” according to Pedone. “He has been involved with almost everything I have ever created in some capacity.” The crowdfunding effort is nearly halfway complete. Shooting has not yet begun and the proceeds from the RocketHub campaign will go toward “casting name actors in some of the key roles.”

Campaigners: Anthony Pedone, Darko Lungulov, Stephen Floyd

Target Amount: $50,000

Amount Currently Raised: $23,542

Campaign Closing Date: July 10, 2014

Funding Goes Toward: Casting and pre-production

Donor Reward Highlights:

+$25 or more: Inclusion in the “Thanks” section of the film’s credits.

+$200 or more: 2 tickets to the films premiere

+$300 or more: Donor gets to act in the film and is listed in the credits, also receives a limited-edition, autographed copy of the screenplay as well as a DVD, T-shirt and signed poster.

+$500: 2 VIP passes to the 2015 Victoria TX Independent Film Festival

Visit the An American in Texas RocketHub campaign page here.

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