April 6, 2013

 

When I was really little, I used to want to be an actress. Then as I got older, as much as I loved acting, I realized writing was easier, and I loved that too. Being an actress just seemed too hard at the time, and when you’re young, everything ‘too hard’ is not worth doing.

 

My good friend Alyssa, growing up with me, wanted to make movies. That’s what she loved to do. As a kid, I knew that also qualified as something ‘too hard’, but that didn’t stop her from pursuing it. After school and on the weekends she’d write, produce, and star in home movies we’d help her make, trying to be as professional as possible with bulky old video cameras and crappy sound. Now as an adult? She’s filming a God damn documentary.

 

Alyssa told me about this documentary over dinner and drinks when we finally caught up with each other in 2010, years after we last spoke in high school. She said she had taken a trip to Massachusetts and discovered some old boxes and documents that belonged to her great grandfather, Jacques Bolsey. But she didn’t just find old keepsakes and writings, she found prototypes of cameras! Cameras with her last name on it! And by George she realized her great grandfather, someone she wouldn’t have known anything about were it not for this trip to Massachusetts, invented the Bolex camera!

 

Alright, so what the heck is a Bolex camera? I’ll break it down. You know how you can make videos at any moment from your phone, your camera, and even your glasses now? You can thank Jacques Bolsey for that. He’s basically the inventor of the personal video camera. He made filming something that anyone could do, not just professional filmmakers. Could you imagine? A life without being able to capture a moment in video? YouTube wouldn’t exist. Can you imagine a life without YouTube?

 

So Alyssa has a personal connection with an inventor, and I have a personal connection with her. That’s why you’re hearing about this. She has been working tirelessly on this documentary for years at this point, and she is only now getting the opportunity to film it. But in order to film it, she has to fund it. Not the easiest thing in the world, but a battle I know she will win in the long run.

 

Her and the Bolex team have started a Kickstarter campaign as their initial step towards funding this documentary. The fact that Alyssa is well on her way to success warms my heart to the core, and I want nothing more than to see that little girl I used to know go after the ‘too hard’, and make her first movie. It gives me chills just thinking about it!

 

As my awesome, dedicated readers, all I ask is that you watch the video below, and contribute ONLY if it interests you. I’d never ask you guys to do anything you didn’t want to do, or to contribute to something you didn’t like in some way, so if documentaries aren’t your bag of peanut M&Ms (mmm), that’s okay. But as her friend since junior high, I am 100% dedicated to helping her succeed at her passion, and if I can combine her passion (film-making), with my passion (blogging), we’ve got double passion and double the fun.

 

Below is her Kickstarter campaign video. Give it a watch, let me know what you think, donate if you want. She has to raise $35,000 by April 19th, or she doesn’t get any of it. So that means you can contribute anywhere from $1 to $50, but if she doesn’t get the entire thing funded by April 19th, she gets none of it. (I’m thinking of suggesting bank robbery, but my gut tells me she’s not into that sort of thing.)

 

At any rate, here’s the video. Give it watch, give it a listen, open your mind, and do what you will. I’ll love you either way. (Maybe a smidgeon more if you contribute $5. Contribute here).

 

Monique Muro

Monique is an exceedingly happy human from LA. She runs the blog A Novel Quest, and writes. A lot.

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