The Nonprofit Behind Beasts

The making of Beasts of the Southern Wild has become a bit of an industry fairytale on its own. Conceived by two childhood friends, created by a group of artists, filmmakers and friends, shot on the fringe of the world with a cast of first time actors including a baker and a six year old child, Beasts was a up hill journey that took almost half a decade to make.  Part of the fable also includes a nonprofit organization and film production company, Cinereach, who financed the bulk of the Beasts budget.

Nonprofit Quarterly takes a closer look at the organization that helped bring Beasts to the big screen: 

Few in Hollywood have paid much attention to these nonprofit film companies, which are Davids among the Goliaths of the major studios. But, particularly with the attention to Beasts of the Southern Wild, perhaps we’re witnessing a change. Perhaps these smaller nonprofits—willing to take risks that the Hollywood market system might never green light, such as a film without professional actors—will begin to attract more attention for their ability to serve as bastions of true art in film.

Read the full article here.

Meet Our Outreachers

I BEAST IT because I love watching and talking about great movies and I believe that awesome grassroots filmmaking deserves just as dedicated a grassroots outreach effort. The more we can put our collective energy behind supporting films that can make a difference outside of the Hollywood machine, the more we're going to see fresh and innovative films like Beasts out in the world! -- Drew, Beasts of the Southern Wild Outreacher We've got a superstar team of outreachers manning the airwaves and fielding your questions & comments.  Meet the bathtubbers!

You may remember Gus and Laura, our National Outreach Coordinators for East and West respectively.

Regionally, we've got Marianna (left) representing the South and Carly (right) in the Midwest.

Jessie (L) & Jess (R) holding down the north east!

& finally, Dema (L) and Drew (R), our NY Outreach coordinators!

Long story short: I was looking at the films that were nominated for Sundance back in January, and stumbled upon the synopsis of Beasts and the vision behind Court 13. Both of them instantly hit home for me -- and I was very excited that a film and production company with such a humanistic and community based values existed. Beasts felt like an oasis of humanism in the film industry and part of a movement I wanted to be a part of. I knew instinctually I had to work for Beasts this summer, so I immediately got in touch with Josh. Now I'm here. -- Jessie Chen, Northeast Outreach Coordinator

We're looking to keep growing our outreach team at our Cinereach HQ in New York and across the globe.

If you're interested in joining our team as an Outreach Coordinator, email us at beasts@beastsofthesouthernwild.com to tell us why you want to get involved and what your schedule is like.