Last Summer whilst we were fundraising for our Kilimanjaro film, I had several conversations with few women about how challenging it has been to fundraise for our documentary and my frustrations at companies (usually run by men) not understanding what an incredible opportunity this is! Seriously why wouldn’t you want to partner with us?!
One asked if I had considered not doing a full length documentary but wearing body cameras and filming it ourselves to keep the costs down.
Yes we had considered that as an option but there’s a world of difference between a home shot holiday video and a professional documentary!
“I don’t watch the videos I capture on holiday why could anyone else want to watch such amateur attempts?!?’ I replied!
But it also go the thinking how often when things are challenging we downgrade our dreams to match our current reality and not upgrade our conviction to match the potential of the dream.
I have to be honest I see this a lot in women and especially South Asian women.
We play it so small and safe. Always settling for the crumbs, prepared to eat the burnt toast, diminishing our call and purpose. Does this sound familiar?
Yes this fundraising is challenging and frustrating but it’s not impossible – nothing is!
If you put your trust in God, you know He’ll put His desires in your heart—so whatever your heart desires you can trust God to fulfil.
There will be times when the odds will be against you. No one will be willing to bet on your belief. Making it a reality will be down to how much conviction you have. Despite all the odds.
Your dream is yours. Your vision is yours. You have to have the ability to keep the focus on your goal and not adjust to the situations to ‘make do.’ I have a big dreams with this documentary – I want it screened on cinemas, film festivals, a streaming partner (I have Netflix on my vision board!) to pick it up. That would not be possible with a self shot film. I am doing this because I believe representation matters, we don’t see enough women like us telling our stories and our stories are worthy of being told. If we don’t have the courage to do this – who will?
I am not doing this to be famous – I couldn’t think of anything worse! At my core I am private and an introvert, none of this comes easily to me but when you have a dream planted by the divine you move as They instruct it and trust. I am showing up with trust and not downgrading the dream.
Questions for you to personally reflect on:
- What is your dream?
- What is it you want to do with your life?
- What would you do if you were not afraid? If there were no limits or pressures or responsibility that were influencing to shy away from admitting your dreams –what would you dream of then?
- If you can please do consider either stepping in as one of our sponsors or connecting us with anyone you know that might be interested to partner with for the film.