New Documentary Scheduled for Worldwide Release in March 2016
A few weeks ago, local filmmaker Arix Zalace and his partners started a crowdfunding campaign for a new feature length documentary titled EndoWhat?. The campaign began with a launch party at Francisco Adaro’s art gallery in Grayton Beach.
“We decided to kick-off the campaign here on 30A with a launch party,” said Zalace.
The campaign quickly gained steam becoming the top trending campaign on IndieGoGo in the first week. IndieGoGo is the world’s largest crowdfunding platform, so this is no small feat. By week three, the target goal of $50,000 had been met.
“We had a really good idea that the campaign was going to do well,” said Zalace. “Within the first week we had reached half the target goal and were receiving donations from all over the planet.”
By the second week, the team had celebrities like Padma Lakshmi (Top Chef host) and Dr. Drew tweeting about the project, all with zero advertising. By the third week, they had over 100,000 people a week visiting their Facebook page, and had reached the target goal. The Elephant Journal also wrote an article on the director, Shannon Cohn, which quickly became the top trending article on their website receiving over 200,000 views in just three days.
“We have obviously tapped a nerve on a story that is long overdue,” said Zalace. “The Endo community has been waiting for this for a long time.”
When asked how he got involved in the project, Zalace elaborated:
“Shannon Cohn (director and producer) and her husband Patricio (DP and producer) approached me two years ago about the project. At first I didn’t think that it was a project that I wanted to take on. The subject matter was very heavy, not something that I thought I wanted to tackle. Shannon and Patricio asked me to just watch interview footage they had been collecting for two years from top specialists in the field. I quickly realized that the subject of Endometriosis is not only a very complicated one, but it is one that is very misunderstood, misdiagnosed, and mistreated. A lot of women and very young girls are going through hell because of this disease, and there is so much misinformation out there about it. Shannon had been living with Endometriosis for twenty years, so this project was very dear to her and Patricio. They showed me that there actually is a very real problem with the disease, how it is viewed in society, and how it is treated. The disease affects at least 10% of all women in the world, and there has never been a film like this made, one where the best information is presented to viewers by the top experts in the world. Think of it this way. Every day you probably see at least ten woman right? Statistically at least one of those women has this disease. If someone tells you that you can do something that will help millions of people worldwide I like to think that everyone would say yes.”
Up to this point Shannon, Patricio, and Zalace have been funding the entire project and donating their time. Zalace said that he has put in well over 1,500 hours in the past two years working on the edit alone.
They are planning to have screenings in New York City, Los Angeles, London, Sydney, Toronto, CapeTown, and Auckland in the beginning of March before the release.
“Once released, we have structured a Tom’s-style model where when someone purchases a DVD we will donate a free one to any school, university, doctor, nurse, or school nurse of your choice anywhere in the world,” he said.
30A Radio recently sat down with Zalace to learn more about the new project:
View the trailer:
