Local Filmmaker Seeks Kickstarter Help for Animated Film

Local Filmmaker Seeks Kickstarter Help for Animated Film
TK TK (Image courtesy Augusta Palmer)
N is for Nurses, Newstands, Niagara Falls and Nigeria, one of the alphabetical worlds in “A is for Aye Aye.” (Image courtesy of Augusta Palmer)

After four years, a local filmmaker is close to finishing an animated movie based on the alphabet, and is asking the public for help.

Longtime Fort Greene resident Augusta Palmer has collected images from the New York Public Library’s Art and Picture Collection to make collages for her animated and live-action short film, “A is for Aye Aye.” The film, originally called “Abcedarian,” meaning someone who is learning their ABCs, will open with a young girl entering the library and exploring the collection. She is then transported into an animated adventure through the alphabet led by an aye aye, a type of lemur.

Now that the animated sequence is complete, Palmer hopes to film the live action segments of the movie by the end of the year.

To do that Palmer must raise $14,900 through Kickstarter by May 27. So far 52 backers have pledged almost $4,361. Local

filmmaker Michael Galinsky, who made “Battle for Brooklyn” with his wife Suki Hawley, was the first backer of the project, said Palmer.

“When you do animation, it’s a pretty big commitment,” Palmer said. “Pixar is literally a million dollars a minute.”

Palmer is also hosting a party on May 22 at the Anthology Film Archives to kick off the fundraiser. Local restaurant Madiba will provide the food and wine. Gifts for backers include animation stills from the movie, an invitation to the screening at Madiba and a special tour of the Art and Picture Collection from Billy Parrott, the collection’s managing librarian.

Her first Kickstarter for the project raised $3,580, which funded her research in the picture collection. Now she’s ready to begin the live shooting in June and has been working with students, alumni and colleagues at Saint Francis College, where Palmer teaches communication arts, to cast actors and select locations. 

Another local, Clinton Hill resident and Pratt Institute graduate Sabina Hahn, produced the animation using images Palmer gathered from the collection.

“W

hen she mentioned Aye-Aye project, I was interested,” Hahn said. “I love libraries and want to work on something that might benefit them.”

Palmer said her inspiration for the film came from and from her two children, Laila, 9, and Nicholas, 9, and from working in the collection while she was making “The Hand of Fatima,” a documentary based on her father’s life.

“I just started thinking about the collection itself and children’s sense of play that we as adults forget,” Palmer said. “Kids still have the ability to transform things.”

Parrott said that the film is a perfect way to celebrate the collection’s centennial next year. He explained that only five percent of the collection has been digitized, and that the vast majority of the collection is not available online. 

“Artists and designers come in looking for something they have exactly in mind and they get lost in the collections,” Palmer said. “The film speaks directly to how people use the collection.”