Overview:
We are Story Maven Media Inc, a nonprofit media company creating social change through the art and education of documentary films. We are campaigning to raise $50,000 in 60 days in an all or nothing campaign. If we do not make our goal on or before April 1st 2020, our donors will be refunded and we will not receive the funds.
We are raising money to create a feature-length documentary titled "Little Ones". The film will investigate the exploding child pornography industry in Iowa and beyond.
The film will feature experts, treatment providers, and law enforcement agencies. The film will also interview convicted child pornography offenders to learn about their offenses and attitudes about them. Based on how horrific child pornography is, it is easy to want to cast offenders away. Yet, our initial research has taught us that offenders who are isolated and have an unstable lifestyle are at risk for reoffending. Leading us to explore whether or not offenders can be rehabilitated and if it’s possible to reintegrate them into society.
“Little Ones” will highlight the severity of the crime while creating much needed conversations around the issue.
Child Pornography:
Federal law defines child pornography (child sex abuse imagery) as any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a minor. Depictions include photographs, videos, digital or computer generated images indistinguishable from an actual minor.
The victims of these crimes range in age from infants and toddlers, to anyone under the age of 18. According to the Innocent Justice Foundation the U.S is the largest producer and consumer of child pornography content in the world. Child pornography is one of the most violent, horrific forms of child abuse possible.
The production of child pornography creates a permanent record of a child’s sexual abuse. When these images are placed and disseminated online, the victimization of the children continues in perpetuity.
One of the devastating consequences of the rise of internet has been the explosion of child sex abuse material. Every year 25 million images are reviewed by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. That’s 480,769 images per week. According to the Canadian Centre for Child Protection children under 12 years old were depicted in 78.30% of the images and videos assessed by their team, and 63.40% of those children were under 8 years of age. Among that same material, they found that 80.42% of the children were girls, while 19.58% were boys.
Often times children are exploited by people they know. Data from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children found that 25% of child pornography content is produced by a neighbor or family friend, 18% by a parent/guardian, while 18% stems from online enticement. More recently, live-streaming has become a popular way to access and pay to watch the live abuse of a child via a video streaming service.
There is much needed education on this topic as it’s under-discussed. By creating this documentary, we hope to educate the public, provide clarity regarding the misconceptions and stigmas, and share stories that will create a social movement in hopes of preventing this crime.
New Research on Sex Offenders in Iowa:
A recent study conducted on federal sex offenders in the Southern District of Iowa revealed staggering new evidence about offenders.
The study indicated that child pornography offenders are significantly more severe than their official criminal history reports. More often than not, child pornography offenders are contact sexual abusers (e.g. defined as sexual intercourse, sodomy, or oral copulation). This means many child pornography offenders are not limited to online exploitation and the sexual abuse was previously unknown to authorities.
The study found that 34 offenders self-reported offending against 148 victims. In terms of the potential number of sex crime events, offenders perpetrated an estimated minimum number of 148 sex crime events, a median number of 1,480 sex crime events, a mean number of 32,101 sex crime events, and a potential maximum number of 827,552 sex crime events. The most prolific offenders were convicted of possessing or receiving child pornography.
BUDGET:
Documentary films are incredibly expensive to make. These are the categories the $50,000 budget will go towards.
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TEAM:
We have a track record for successfully completing Indegogo campaigns. With your help we raised over $35,000 on a 60 day all or nothing campaign in 2018. With the money we raised we produced Gridshock, an award winning documentary about the sex trafficking demand in Iowa. We premiered the film April 2019 to a crowd of nearly $1,500 people in Des Moines Iowa. There continues to be sold out screenings around the country and the film has already been seen by thousands of people.
Vanessa McNeal:
Film Director & Founder of Story Maven Media
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Vanessa McNeal MSW is an award winning documentary filmmaker, national speaker, and 2x TEDx speaker. She is the Director of Gridshock, a documentary on sex trafficking in Iowa. She also Directed “The Voiceless” an internationally acclaimed documentary about male survivors of sexual violence. She has committed her life to story-telling and elevating social issues.
Learn more at vanessamcneal.com
Taylor Bluemel:
Cinematographer & Creative Director for Story Maven Media
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Taylor Bluemel is an award-winning cinematographer and editor. For over 6 years He has focused on creating cinematic images that represent his raw and evocative style of composition. He is best known for his cinematography on the award winning documentary Gridshock. He has a passion to deliver thoughtful narratives about social issues that impact local and global communities covering topics including: dementia, alztheimers, cancer, and sex trafficking.
Learn more at www.taylorbluemel.com
Risks & Challenges
Our biggest challenge is achieving the financial goals we’ve set to ensure the films success. We’re going with an all-or-nothing campaign, which means if we don’t reach 100% of our funding goals, our donors get their money back. We are so invested in "Little Ones", that we refuse to compromise the quality or integrity of the film by shooting without sufficient resources.
Our biggest risk is that we are investigating an industry that is very underground. We are also planning on working with convicted offenders. That said, we will exercise the highest standards of safety precautions for production crew and participants.
Want to Donate?
We would love your support and quite frankly, we NEED it in order to create this film. If you're interested in receiving one of our unique perks select the one you're interested in on the right side of this page. If you aren't interested in receiving a perk and want to simply donate, click "BACK IT" and type the amount you want to contribute.
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Website:https://www.storymavenmedia.org/
