Fund This: ‘Brothers’ Asks For $60,000 To Spotlight Trans Men

Welcome to Fund This, a new column here at Tubefilter. Each week, we’ll look at a planned web series or other online video project currently in search of funding on Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or any other similar crowdfunding sites. We’ll tell you what the series is all about and explain why it is worth your money. Do you have a project that’s currently being crowdfunded? Contact us to let us know and we may feature it in upcoming installments and check out previous installments right here.

Project Name: Brothers

Asking For: $60,000 on Indiegogo

Amount Raised Thus Far (At Time Of Post): $3,786

Days Remaining In Campaign (At Time Of Post): 13

Description: Brothers plans to explore the struggles of trans men through four separate protagonists. On their own, these four leading men have unique relationship troubles and each represent different stages in the transitioning process. Taken together, they represent a cross-section of the trans male population. “I know that I am in no way able to represent the entire trans masculine community or spectrum,” creator Emmett J.P. Lundberg told The Huffington Post, “but I’m aiming to make a portion of it more visible.”

To show off his vision for Brothers, Lundberg “[called] in a lot of favors for the pilot episode,” which runs for nine minutes. The result shows great potential and a fantastic artistic vision that does well to engage the viewer.

Creator Bio: Lundberg’s previous experience comes mostly in film, where he has penned four feature film scripts and worked in set decoration for Hollywood pictures such as Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

and Julie & Julia. His writing has earned him several awards, including a semi-finalist position in Sundance’s Screenwriters Lab.

Best Perk: $100 earns the contributor a walk-on role in the series, and another $50 on top of that adds a spoken line. Anyone who picks up that perk should immediately start practicing their inflection and delivery.

Why You Should Fund It: There are plenty of LGBT web series, but as Lundberg explains, the trans male community has been somewhat under-served, even on the Internet. “Most stories about FTM individuals are non-fiction based,” he said. “Those are crucial stories as well, but I think we need a lot more representation in narrative media. People need to see our lives on the small screen, the big screen and everything in between. The only way to be taken as equal is to be seen as equal.” A Jezebel article on Brothers backed up this sentiment, noting that it is moreso trans women who have received widespread public attention.

At the same time, Brothers is a worthwhile web series even with taking social justice into account. The pilot establishes Lundberg and his team as highly capable, and Brothers has the potential the be the best kind of web drama: One that is raw, emotive, and enduring.