Why We’re Raising Funds for Odie
- Press Releases
- Mar 26
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 20
There's a version of independent filmmaking where you wait for permission. You wait for the right financier, the right connection, the right moment when everything lines up cleanly.
This isn't that version.
Odie is being made because it needs to be made now, with the people we have, in the city it belongs to.
At its core, Odie is a one-day story about a man trying to get off the street. What should be a simple path forward becomes something else entirely — missed connections, closed doors, small acts of kindness, and a system that doesn't quite bend enough when it needs to.
That's the film. But the reason we're making it goes a layer deeper than that.
Austin is a city people love to promote. It's clean, creative, fast-growing. But there's another version of the city that lives just beneath that surface. It exists in the medians, underpasses, bus stops, and sidewalks most people pass through without stopping. Odie is built to stay there for a full day and let the audience sit with it.
Not as an issue. As a person.
That distinction matters to us. The film isn't designed to lecture or simplify anything. It's meant to feel human, sometimes funny, sometimes uncomfortable, and always grounded in the dignity of the people it's portraying.
To do that right, we have to make it the right way.
This is a contained, performance-driven feature. It lives in real locations across Austin, with a small crew, a focused cast, and a production model built around authenticity and speed. That approach keeps the film honest, but it also means we don't have the safety net of a large studio budget.
To help bridge that gap, Odie is fiscally sponsored by Fractured Atlas — one of the largest arts service organizations in the United States. That partnership means every donation made to this project is tax-deductible, and that our fundraising is backed by a legitimate nonprofit infrastructure that protects both the project and the people who support it. If you've been looking for a reason to step in, that's a good one.
Right now, we're working toward a lean production target of $42,000, with early development already underway. Every dollar we raise goes directly into putting the film on screen — paying cast and crew, securing locations, handling post-production, and making sure the final product can stand alongside the films that inspired it.
The goal is to take Odie through the festival circuit, starting with discovery-driven festivals like SXSW and Austin Film Festival, and position it for distribution with platforms actively looking for grounded, character-driven indie films. This is a film built to travel, but it starts here.
What makes this project different — and what makes supporting it meaningful — is what happens after.
Once the production budget is recouped, all proceeds from the film will be donated directly to Austin organizations doing the hardest work in this space: ECHO Austin, Charlie Center, Sunrise Navigation Center, and Trinity Center. These are the organizations that show up every day for the people Odie is about. The same community that informs the story will directly benefit from it.
We're also working to involve that community during production, hiring unhoused individuals as background performers and in select roles. Not as a gesture, but as a way to keep the film honest and rooted in real experience.
That's the full picture.
This is a film about dignity, built in a way that tries to respect it at every level — from the story itself to how it's made and where its impact lands.
If you're reading this, you're early. This is the stage where a film either becomes real or stays an idea.
We're choosing to make it real.
If you're interested in supporting Odie, partnering on the film, or just following along as it comes together, now is the time to step in. Whether that support is financial, creative, or simply sharing the project with someone who might connect with it, it all matters.
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