Short Summary

We have already raised $12,800 from family and friends for the film adaptation of Greenhorn, which is in pre-production. Now we have created an Indiegogo campaign with a goal of $3,000, although are hoping to raise more in order to pay for production and film festival costs. Director Tom Whitus has created the first shot, the Moishe Oysher marquee above (more about the first shot below).

The film is an adaptation of Greenhorn, my Holocaust novel for young readers, which is based on a true story I heard about a young Holocaust survivor who arrived at a Brooklyn yeshiva in the 1940s with only a small box that he wouldn't let out of his sight.

Karen Cushman, Newbery Medalist, calls the book Greenhorn "a tender, touching celebration of friendship, family, and faith." David Adler, winner of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book for Nonfiction, calls Greenhorn "a heartwarming and heartrending story of friendship and tragedy." 



Now director Tom Whitus is adapting the book to film. Tom has the goal of submitting the film for an Academy Award nomination in the Short Films Awards category. Greenhorn will premiere in New York, then go on to Jewish film festivals around the country. Through donations from friends and family we are almost 2/3 of the way to meeting our fundraising goal of $18,000, but now we need donors to complete the project. We hope the Indiegogo community will help us.

If you've read the book, you know that the boys go out one night to watch a Moishe Oysher film. The sound in the shot above is actually the chanting before Moishe sings Kol Nidre in the 1940 film, so it’s not the music that Tom and the editor will use in the film. Tom tells me that this first shot was close to impossible to make happen, but thanks to an old theater (built in 1928) with a working marquee — and an employee willing to put this up for Tom when he needed it (there aren’t a lot of Moishe Oysher films on marquees these days!) — it did happen. 

Final filming will take place in May.

What We Need & What You Get

Tom would like to shoot the entire film in New York City. To get Greenhorn written, shot and edited, with music and sound completed, we’re aiming for $15,000 as the basic budget. With all the materials required for an Academy Award opportunity (very important to Tom), we’ll spend another $3,000 on "deliverables," which refers to post production technical specifications. The film will need to be delivered for Digital Cinema Projection with a high definition picture and 5.1 audio. That makes the total budget $18,000. 

Our plan is to show the film in an Los Angeles theater prior to October 1, 2014, as part of the Academy Award consideration process. We may need a little more for festival costs, theater costs in Los Angeles, and any post production costs the $3,000 doesn’t cover. We have already raised about $12,800 from family and friends. Although we have set our Indiegogo campaign goal as $3,000, we are hoping to raise the remaining amount of about $5,200, and more, in order to pay for film festival costs.

We are offering these rewards for contributors to the Greenhorn Film Project:

$5,000—Executive Producer—opening credit, single card (and if desired: screenwriting coaching session with director Tom Whitus or writing coaching session with literary agent Anna Olswanger)

$2,500—Co-Executive Producer—single card before closing credits roll (and if desired: screenwriting coaching session with director Tom Whitus or writing coaching session with literary agent Anna Olswanger)

$1,000—Associate Producer—single card before closing credits roll

$500—Top of "Special Thanks" in closing credits roll

$100—End of "Special Thanks" in closing credits roll

$75—DVD and two tickets to the premiere 

$50—DVD and one ticket to the premiere 

$25—DVD

If we're not able to raise $18,000, some people in post-production will have their payments deferred, so any profit from the film would be used to pay them. For example, we would pay our hard costs (principal photography) first, and if we don't raise enough to pay the editor, composer, sound designer or others, and have to defer their payments, we will pay them first from any profit.

If there is a profit after paying the post-production costs, we will canvas the donors and let them know that extra money has come in and ask where would they like the money sent. We might offer choices (perhaps some Holocaust foundations), and let the donors vote.

The Impact

Because even the youngest Holocaust survivors will soon be gone, many children today will grow up without meeting a Holocaust survivor. They will never have a direct connection to the Holocaust. This film, along with other Holocaust films, could be their only connection. We intend Greenhorn to be a film for the next generation. 

About the film's director and producer Tom Whitus:

Tom has been a film director since 19971, when he wrote and directed the short film Parts, picked up for worldwide distribution by NYC-based distributor The Cinema Guild (1997). He is the director of the feature film Threat of Exposure (2002), and the director/writer of the following: the feature film More Than Puppy Love (2000); the feature film The Only Witness (2003, shown on Lifetime Network in 2004); the short film Give & Take, nominated for Best Screenplay at the 168 Film Project and winner of the “Got Heart” award at the Sojourn Film Festival (2006); the feature film Matchmaker Mary (2008); the feature film Jr. Detective Agency (2010, showed on Showtime, 2011-12); the feature film Sam Steele and the Crystal Chalice (2012, in worldwide distribution this year and runner-up Best Comedy Feature at the International Family Film Festival in 2012); and the feature film An Old Man’s Gold (2013, in worldwide distribution this year). He is currently shooting a family film titled Almost Home as writer-producer-director. It will be finished in early 2014. 

Tom says that the job of film is to tell a story and make an impact felt for many years to come. He believes that Greenhorn, as a film, will reach a new and broad audience.

I've been a literary agent with Liza Dawson Associates in New York since 2005. I grew up in Memphis where I first heard the story of Greenhorn from Rabbi Rafael Grossman. My first book Shlemiel Crooks is a Sydney Taylor Honor Book and PJ Library Book. In 2011, a family musical based on Shlemiel Crooks premiered at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City. 

How we will promote the film

We will aim for as many Jewish Film Festivals as possible. There is one in New York in January, one in Louisville (where Tom lives) in February, and many others. Because Tom will finish shooting by the late spring, we will be ready to enter any festivals available to us in the summer of 2014, but Tom is really aiming for a September screening in Los Angeles. Artwork will be a key to the promotion of the film, and based on the art in the book, we have some great contacts in that area. The festivals won’t be free to enter, but a good festival run can provide great publicity for the film that doesn’t cost much more than artwork and entry fees. Tom will try to get us into 4-5 good festivals in late 2014, early 2015.

Other Ways You Can Help

We'd like to ask everyone to help get the word out about the project by tweeting, blogging, or posting a message on your Facebook page with a link to the Indiegogo campaign URL. Please help make noise about Greenhorn. If you know of people who are interested in Holocaust-related films, especially people who might want to back such a film, consider directing them to our Indiegogo page.

Most of all, we hope all of you will be sitting with us in a theater next year and watching the Greenhorn film.