Katie Sponseller
Posted Oct. 14, 2014 @ 6:00 am
Katie Sponseller Hoover High School alumnus and current Columbia College Chicago graduate student, Katie Sponseller, and her production partner, M. Allam, recently announced the launch of their 30-day crowd-funding campaign on Kickstarter.com.
In an effort to raise funds toward the production costs of their film titled “Our Brittle Book,” the team will be working toward raising $7,000 or more on the campaign site.
The film’s message is about the importance of book preservation and literacy. The production team is striving to carry their message beyond the film by simultaneously running a book drive at local Chicago schools. All books collected at the drive along with all of the books used as props on the set of the film will be donated to a local charity.
The film will be submitted for partial completion of Sponseller and Allam’s advanced-degree programs, but the filmmakers hope to take it to film festivals worldwide and bring their message back to the community.
The film was inspired by real-word events such as a library in Texas going all-digital and another about a library that was just throwing away thousands of books.
“We want to do this story justice and complete it at a high level, but we simply cannot front the entire cost of the production on our own and that’s why we have turned to Kickstarter,” said Sponseller.
“Our Brittle Books” is a story about Ronald, a stubborn book preservationist who plans a heist with an unlikely team after discovering that his local library is converting to an all-digital platform. In an attempt to save all of the books from destruction, Ronald takes the stolen books home where he soon finds himself imprisoned. What he comes to learn is that books should be shared and passed on.
Principal photography for the film is set to take place the first two weekends of November with an expected release at festivals next year.
To learn more about the team and the production, “Our Brittle Books” can be followed on social media sites including: Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. To donate, visit https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1551675073/our-brittle-books, where there is a short video and more details.
The way Kickstarter works is the campaign has 30 days, until Friday, Oct. 24, at approximately 7 a.m., to raise $7,000 or they will not receive any of the funds.
After graduating in 2006 from Hoover, Sponseller attended The University of Akron where she obtained her B.A. in mass media communication. At Hoover she was involved in drama club, Viking Views, HiLos and mock trial.
After graduation, she worked with The Walt Disney Company in Florida for three years prior to returning to the midwest. At Columbia College Chicago, she is working toward her M.F.A. in creative producing and expects to graduate in May 2015.