Priced Out launches IndieGoGo Campaign

"Fabled corner of North Russell Street and Williams Avenue when it was heart of a thriving black community"

We’ve launched a new IndieGoGo fundraising account for people who want to continue to contribute to "Priced Out: Gentrification Beyond Black and White."

After a successful Kickstarter campaign we’ve had multiple people reach out wanting to know how they can contribute or continue contributing to our project. 

As we’ve said before, our Kickstarter campaign was not designed to fund the entire project.  On a community-based project like this everyone is working for free or below scale. Our Kickstarter was meant to just cover some of our hard costs, equipment purchases or rentals, travel, office space, web and promotion and field-producing expenses, etc.  We continue to look for grants and we do a lot of partnering with organizations like Northwest Documentary and HackOregon to help acquire in-kind donations and other assets.

While costs continue to mount, we are trucking along just fine.  But we wanted the ability to direct people to a bucketwhere they could make a contribution now that the Kickstarter campaign is done.

We’ve set up a campaign with IndieGoGo here. You can also get it from our homepage. The IndieGoGo campaign lasts 30 days, but if we don’t reach the goal, we can still keep the funds that have been raised, unlike Kickstarter.  After that, the campaign will just turn into a bucket for contributions with no time constraints at all.

 
"Mississippi Avenue circa 1999, before high end shops and condos filled the street."

"Mississippi Avenue circa 1999, before high end shops and condos filled the street."

We understand this conversation on gentrification impacts large parts of our community and we want to provide a platform for those stories to be heard. All contributions go strictly toward project-related costs.  Producers Spencer Wolf and Cornelius Swart continue to donate their time to the project at no cost.


The North Portland that I Used to Know

The North Portland that I Used to Know

Recently, we were approached by a young man who grew up in North Portland's St. Johns neighborhood and wanted to tell his story. He had an interested point of view on gentrification and we wanted to include some of his experience in the project. Since he now lives in Los Angeles, he was good enough to write some thoughts down so that we could post them on this site. We've left the story in his voice and we think it deserves a read. -- Cornelius Swart, producer.

My name is Zach Garman. I am 21 years old and reside in the Los Angeles area. However I grew up in Portland, Oregon during a very definitive time.

The year is 1999. I am only 5 years old at this time but I can remember everything as if it were yesterday. The small street I lived on was comprised of mostly older and run down bungalows, craftsman, and two small apartment complexes. It was extremely noisy where I lived. There was always someone yelling or sirens flying past the end of the block on the street perpendicular to mine. My family lived in a partially renovated 1905 farmhouse previously occupied as a crack house. There were a few other families on the block as well. Our neighbors, the Jacksons, lived on the corner. They’re a large family of Old English drinking, lifted truck driving, rednecks from Arkansas. They have grit and attitude like most of the families in the neighborhood. They play music all night through the summers on subs loud enough for literally the next three blocks over to hear. The rest of our street is just as eclectic. There are a few black families, an old white lady, and some recluses that never seem to leave their homes.

Priced Out Reaches Fundraising Goal

We did it! 

Priced Out hit its goal of raising $10,000 just a few hours before our Kickstarter campaign closed Thursday morning. 

Phew! It came right down to the wire. 

Over 100 people, with pledges ranging from $5 to $2,000, came together and made a commitment to seeing our project become a reality. 

To all of those who made a contribution, Thank You! 

I think I speak for producer Spencer Wolf as well, when I say it’s an honor to have so many people support this effort. It shows how many care about this community and how many trust that Spencer and I to do a good job of reporting on the important topic of gentrification and affordable housing. 

So what’s next? Well, Spencer and I are now accountable to 119 “Big Shot Hollywood Producers” so we better get to work. 

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be sending out official Thank You postcards. Other Kickstarter rewards like the production T-shirt, Gentrification Spotter’s Manual and other items will be delivered as they become available towards the end of the year.

Our next goal is to have a test screening of the rough cut of the film by late fall. The screening will include our 17 new Associate and Executive Producers and a select group of folks from the community. We’ll take the feedback we get from that screening into the editing room for the final cut of the film. 

Spencer and I hope to release the documentary by the end of the year or by January of next year. I’ll continue to post updates and new reporting on the site blog at PricedOutMovie.com, on Kickstarter and on Facebook. 

Please follow along with this exciting project made for and paid for by the community. 

Cornelius Swart
Producer

Last Day of Priced Out Kickstarter Campaign

It’s the final day of our Kickstarter campaign, so please spread the word and if you haven’t already contributed, please do it now.

On Wednesday our campaign received its 100th pledge. That’s an impressive show of community support.

But there’s still a funding gap left to fill. It’s going to go right down to the wire, so please consider making a contribution to this important project right away.

Priced Out Kickstarter Campaign: HERE

Priced Out is a documentary about the complexities and contradictions of gentrification as one woman grapples with life after "the Ghetto."

Gentrification, once a phenomenon that only occurred in big cities like New York, Chicago and San Francisco is now cropping up in cities from San Antonio to St. Louis to Portland, Maine.

Why is this happening? What does it mean for Portland, Ore. and what does it mean for those people who have never experienced such dramatic change in their community?

Learn More About the Project: HERE

3 Days Left- New Rewards: Gentrification Spotter’s Manual, Tattoo

There’s only three days left in the Priced Out, Kickstarter campaign and the producers have added some new rewards to encourage people to help this important project.

Over the weekend, Priced Out was selected as a staff pick on Kickstarter. We set out to get selected by the staff and we did it. But the campaign still has a ways to go.  These last three days will be crucial so the producers have added some new rewards to the Kickstarter mix. 

$20 Pledge

Gentrification Spotter's Manual [PDF of eBook Cover]

How do you know gentrification is coming to your avant-garde enclave or sleepy working class neighborhood? What's the difference between a historic preservationist, a speculator, a gentrifier and an incumbent?

This eBook download written by producer Cornelius Swart is a handy, insightful and at times irreverent guide to the terms, characters and memes that make up the gentrification "movement."

$125 Pledge

Free Tattoo

Yes, strange, but a free tattoo has been donated to anyone who gives a pledge of $125, care of artist Peter Bagdanov from The Truth salon in Pacifica, Calif. Get the tattoo drawn and completed in Oct. at the Portland Tattoo Expo

These rewards join our existing ones, such as

$60 Pledge

“They Gentrified My Neighborhood And All I Got Was This Lousy T-shirt” T-shirt.

$120 Pledge

One of our more popular rewards is a ticket to a test screening and filmmaker discussion. This event promises to be one of the most pivotal in the project’s timeline, as the audience will have opportunity to give feed back on the film BEFORE it’s finalized.

Please share and contribute to our campaign today

Kickstarter Campaign: HERE

More about Priced Out: HERE

 

Documentary gets working title: PRICED OUT: 15 Years of Gentrification in North/Northeast Portland

The Portland gentrification documentary project that began filming in March of 2015 now has a working title – Priced Out: 15 Years of Gentrification in North/Northeast Portland. Nearly 15 years have passed since the release of Northeast Passage: The Inner City and the American Dream, a documentary focused on gentrification and affordable housing in the then mostly black neighborhoods of Portland, Ore. Change has been stark.

WATCH: NorthEast Passage on Amazon Streaming

Cornelius Swart, an established reporter and Spencer Wolf are partnering once again on the production. The original film centers around Nikki Williams, a single black mother who welcomed gentrification at the time as a means to rid her street of flagrant crime. Now, most of the black and low-income community has been out-priced from Northeast Portland. Williams herself is leaving.

Priced Out will combine some of the original project’s 125 hours of footage with new material, retracing the journey of Williams and the neighborhood, creating a time lapse illustrating Northeast Portland’s rapid and extensive development. They intend to make the finished project free for distribution and released in fall of 2015. The filmmakers are launching a Kickstarter campaign for the film with a goal of $10,000. Early contributions are essential, the more people who contribute on Day One, even in very small amounts, the greater the publicity from Kickstarter.

“Priced Out” Wants to Raise 30 Percent of Kickstarter Funds on Wednesday

In “Priced Out,” Nikki Williams, the focus of original film, leaves Portland in search of a new black community.

In “Priced Out,” Nikki Williams, the focus of original film, leaves Portland in search of a new black community.

We’re all set to launch our Kickstarter campaign this Wednesday, July 22, and we have to raise 30 percent of our goal on the very first day.

Priced Out: 15 Years of Gentrification in North/Northeast Portland is the sequel to our 2002 film NorthEast Passage: The Inner City and the American Dream.

Read the review of the original film in the Willamette Week: HERE

I started filming in March of this year, doing everything out of pocket and on a shoestring budget.  Co-producer Spencer Wolf and I hope to raise $10,000 with Kickstarter. That money would go to pay off equipment loans and give us the ability to hire some folks to help out. Wolf and I intend to volunteer our time as much as possible.

The trick will be raising at least $3,350 on the very first day. Kickstarter likes to see projects raise a third of their money on day one. If they do, it’s more likely that Kickstarter will promote the project on its own website and network.

Either way, we’ve got 30 days to raise all the funds. If we fall short, all the money goes back to the funders. It’s all or nothing with Kickstarter. Wolf and I are keeping our fingers crossed.

Read more about the project: HERE

If you haven’t already, please sign up for our email updates. We’ll send you a note when we launch. If you get it, please pass it along.

Now the countdown begins.