A friend of mine from Pittsburgh, Ben of Ambulantic, is using Kickstarter.com to fund his experimental documentary film, Vazaha. From his Kickstarter page:

In the summer of 2008, I spent 16 days traveling around Madagascar shooting a sort of essayist documentary. It was an amazing and unforgettable experience and I went there hoping I could find a way to make it beneficial to the people I met, all of whom were generous, welcoming, and extremely warm to me.

I spent months editing the footage and have competed a final version, detailing my experience in a way perhaps best described as a mixture of Chris Marker, Werner Herzog and Phil Collins (the artist, not the dude who was in Genesis). And I am certainly not claiming to be on par with any of those guys, but they have all influenced my work and the project specifically.

The title, Vazaha means foreigner in Malagassy. You hear it a lot traveling through Madagascar. People would call it out to each other as you walked by, smiling and waving.

You can watch a portion of his project and contribute as little as one dollar to help fund it by visiting the project’s Kickstarter page.

Check out the Ambulantic channel at YouTube to see more of Ben’s work.