Keep the Mumblecore Dream Alive

Erin Scherer in How Mumblecore Saved My Life

By S.T. VanAirsdale

Back in July I had a look at the handiwork of one Erin Scherer, whose adaptation of Howl on the occasion of Lindsay Lohan's fall from grace virtually smoked with raw spiritual outrage. You might also remember Scherer as the mind behind "How Mumblecore Saved My Life," a rambling Webcam one-off that attributed her renewed confidence as a filmmaker to the work of young 'uns who emerged from the oversexed, underfunded miasma of South by Southwest.

While Scherer has hardly stopped making her compulsively watchable gonzo triumphs for an online audience, this week she sends Reeler HQ word of perhaps her most ambitious effort yet:

In the summer of 2007, I uploaded a video to YouTube called “How Mumblecore Saved My Life,” about the "mumblecore" film movement, a cluster of movies that have really turned the world of independent film on its head. A month or so later, Matt Dentler, a blogger at indieWIRE.com and a festival programmer for the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival, linked to this video. Now I want to meet him and many of Mumblecore’s other important people, including Andrew Bujalski, Joe Swanberg and their collaborators in 2008 at SXSW in Austin, Texas.

There’s only one problem -- I have no money! So I created granterinswish.com and have decided to hold a fundraiser to attend the festival in March. My goal is to raise $3,200 by March 5, 2008. I need your help to get the word out there.

I can't imagine this money won't show up in Erin's mailbox by the end of the week, let alone early March ("The deadline I have set is March 5, 2008 at 4:30 pm, which is what time my bank closes," she writes in her FAQ), but in case you need convincing, you really should check out the site, maybe buy a T-shirt or a Mumblecore Erin coffee mug and do your part to keep the dream alive. 'Tis the season, after all.

Posted at November 27, 2007 11:32 AM