Director appeals for help to fund movie

A man who overcame drug addiction to become a successful film director has appealed for public help funding his latest movie.

Corkman Philip A McCarthy, who had a short film screened in a prestigious section of the Cannes Film Festival in 2011, has teamed up with website, www.letscrowdit.com, to help get his new thriller off the ground.

“In an environment where financing from the traditional sources such as the banks is virtually non-existent, this new approach to financing artistic and creative projects is really coming into its own,” he said.

A decade ago, Philip was smoking heroin, cannabis and taking cocaine, but he turned his life around. Drug-free for several years, he now writes plays and directs movies to help spread an anti-drugs message.

He won awards for his play, The Dark Room, which he later adapted as a short film and which was selected for the Cannes influential Short Film Corner in 2011.

His latest movie project, Revenant, is a thriller set in Dublin about three friends who capture a strange event on camera while hosting a party. The event causes a major blackout and all but one house is plunged into darkness.

He hopes the online fundraising drive will help meet the production costs.

The letscrowdit website uses a crowd-funding model which originated in the US to fund mainly artistic projects, social projects, community events, club fundraisers and projects of a non-commercial nature.

Letscrowdit founder Nicole Bodell said it helps like-minded people support each other through donations in exchange for unique rewards associated with the project.