UPDATE

Cross-Canada Trip

Our 10 day cross-Canada trip was a HUGE SUCCESS!  Meetups, press, and interviews with many fantastic Canadians all leading to an amazing Canada Day celebration in Vancouver.  We're exhausted, but it's not over yet!

Now is the final push to get much needed funds to complete this film!

So we're releasing all kinds of new perks and incentives to show our appreciation and help us reach our goal!  Take a look below.

NEW INCENTIVES!

If we raise $40,000, we will release a video clip of some hilarious antics, compliments of Russell Peters.

If we raise $50,000, we will release a clip of Howie Mandel doing something Canadians do best!

If we raise $65,000, Producer Colin Gray will film our Director Rob sashaying down Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills wearing nothing but Canada flag tighty-whiteys.

If we raise $75, 000, our camera-operator Tyler will shave his beard he has been growing for years, while singing "Oh Canada".

If we raise $85, 000, Director Rob will get Producer Colin back by forcing him to get a maple leaf tattooed on his butt, with footage to prove it.

Thank you for visiting this page!  With your help, we hope to raise enough money to finish our feature length documentary called Being Canadian.  But first:

What is BEING CANADIAN?

Being Canadian finally gets to the bottom of the question everyone around the world wants answered…

Who will win Dancing With The Stars?

But until that is solved, we’re going to keep making this film, which is a humorous, slightly-tongue-in-cheek, yet genuine documentation of how I, Robert Cohen, go on a personal quest to find out what it really means…to be Canadian.  As politely as possible.

• Mike Myers
• Michael J. Fox
• Conan O’Brien
• Ben Stiller
• Kathy Griffin
• Dan Aykroyd
• Will Arnett
• Rick Mercer
• Dave Foley
• William Shatner
• Martin Short
• Rich Little
• The Royal Canadian Air Farce
• The Barenaked Ladies
• Former Prime Minister Kim Campbell
• Morley Safer
• David Steinberg
• Paul Shaffer
• Russell Peters
• Jason Priestley
• Alan Thicke
• Alex Trebek
• Luc Robitaille
• Bernie Brillstein
• Alanis Morrisette
• Malcolm Gladwell
• Caroline Rhea
• Howie Mandel
• The Commissioner to the CFL
• The Trailer Park Boys
• The head of the CBC
• 40 Mounties on horseback
• Brewery workers on the line
• Dog sledders in Quebec
• My Parents
• Miss Canada

And we have MANY MORE AMAZING potential interviews pending!

Money Spent So Far

To date, we've raised $100K which we used to shoot 75+ interviews, capture over 100 hours of footage, visit various Canadian and US cities for shoots, and remote Man-on-the-Street interviews in India, Kenya, Pakistan, and the U.K.   

We've managed to stretch our budget by working deferments for all our core production team (meaning the director, writer, producers, DP and EPs are all working gratis), and then we've spent the money raised to date carefully on the following:

• Travel - local & intl (airfare, car, etc) --- $22K
• Accommodation - local & intl --- $8K
• Crew costs --- $20K
• Production Equipment (cameras, lenses, lights, etc.) --- $13K
• Transcriptions --- $3K
• Editor --- $14K
• Post Equipment --- $10K
• Research/ Archive --- $6K
• Legal --- $4K 

What We Need

We now urgently need to raise another $95,000 to actually finish the film, including a final round of amazing interviews, and then all the editing and post production needed to finish the film.  Just like we've done with production, no one on our team will take a penny, until we get our film across the finish line!  

Specifically, here's where we plan to spend the $95K: 

• Cross Canada Shoot (Travel & Crew Costs) --- $15K
• Additional Interview Crew costs --- $10K
• Production Equipment (cameras, lenses, lights, etc.) --- $4K
• Transcriptions --- $1K
• Editor --- $15K
• Post Equipment --- $9K
• Graphic Design --- $5K
• Music Composing/ Licensing --- $8K
• Research/ Archive --- $4K
• Footage Licensing (Festival Use) --- $15K
• Legal --- $4K
• Micellaneous (like Indiegogo prizes) --- $5K

Once the documentary is finished and edited, our plan is to submit BEING CANADIAN to a bunch of high profile film festivals like the Toronto Film Festival (TIFF), Just For Laughs, Berlin, Sundance, Tribeca, etc.

We understand that you're not going to give your money away to just anyone, so here is a bit of background on who's involved in BEING CANADIAN:

Robert Cohen

The pride of the Canadian Rockies, Emmy Award winner and multiple Cable Ace Award nominee Robert Cohen is an established television and feature writer/producer, and director, who has been successfully working in every format over the last 20 years, including sitcoms, sketch, variety, animation and major motion pictures.

Some of his TV writing and producing credits include The Simpsons, Saturday Night Live, Just Shoot Me, The Big Bang Theory and The Ben Stiller Show.  Film work includes Austin Powers 2 & 3, Tropic Thunder, Shrek 2 and 3, and The Campaign.

As a director, Rob has filmed a series of shorts for MTV and HBO, music videos for artists such as Aimee Mann, multiple TV commercials, and various TV episodes and pilots for some very nice people at Comedy Central, Funny or Die, and IFC.  

His turn-ons are honesty and short bios.

The Sibs - GRAiNEY PICTURES

Colin Keith Gray and Megan Raney Aarons, better known as The Sibs, are an award winning brother/sister writing, directing & producing team with over 20 years experience as cross-platform storytellers and filmmakers.  

Recent credits include Meena, a scripted short film based on Nicolas Kristof's novel, "Half The Sky" (2013); Google's interactive web series ThinkB4U (2012); the action sports branded web series Clean Break (Sony Crackle 2010); Redlight, a TV doc about child sex trafficking (Showtime 2010); and Freedom's Fury, the acclaimed feature doc about the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.  

The Sibs launched GRAiNEY PICTURES, their full service transmedia production company, in 2003.  

Amaze Film + TV

Amaze Film + Television is an award-winning production company based in Toronto.  It was founded in 2000 by writers/producers Michael Souther and Teza Lawrence.  Amaze partners with companies across Canada and around the world to produce market-driven films and television, with strong ties in Los Angeles, New York and Europe.  Credits include Call Me Fitz, an award winning half-hour comedy series airing its fourth season this fall on HBO Canada and the Audience Network in the US; Finn on the Fly (2009), starring Ana Gasteyer and Ryan Belleville; and Saint Ralph (2004), which received a Genie nomination for Best Feature Film.

Becky Hutner

Becky's adventure in post production began with an internship transcribing interview footage for one of her all-time favourite filmmakers, Michel Gondry.  She's since edited hundreds of segments for cable, network, and interactive web campaigns, as well as numerous doc features and web series. Credits include Robert Stewart's multiple award winning environmental doc Revolution; Ondi Timoner's ground breaking web portal A Total Disruption; the short film Meena directed by Lucy Liu and The Sibs; Clean Break for Schick Hydro & Sony; an LA Emmy nomination for NBC's Your LA; and work for a diverse range of entertainment clients including Current TV, Katalyst Media, Verizon, Nestle and GRAiNEY PICTURES.

Becky also writes about being a Canadian in Los Angeles for online travel mag, Matador.

Michael LaFetra - FOUNDATION FILMS

We understand that not everyone can contribute, but if you're interested in Canada, Canadians, and funny people in general, there are other ways you can help!

You can join our Facebook Fan Page: Being Canadian Movie, and encourage other people to join!

You can follow us on Twitter: @becanadianmovie

You can visit our website: www.beingcanadianmovie.com

You can make your own flyers at home and force them on people at bus stops!

You can tell your friends.

Thank you for reading our pitch!  We can't do it without your help, so just remember: every little bit counts!