We feature quite a few crowd-sourcing campaigns on BGPS, as there are a lot of good projects out there, but limited funding. The latest looking to the interwebs for financial help is Drown, an Aussie movie based on an acclaimed play by Stephen Davis. They’ve set up a funding page over at IndieGogo, and to help you decide if you’d like to help, they’ve released a pre-production trailer which you can see above. As usual with these sorts of the things, there are different perks available depending on how much you want to give.

Here’s a bit more about the project, taken from the film’s IndieGogo page: Based on the acclaimed Queensland Theatre Company play, DROWN tells the story of Len, an heroic but homophobic surf lifesaver who finds himself attracted to Phil, a younger, openly gay lifesaver. Unable to cope with sex-attraction within the confines of male sports culture, Len enlists his best mate Meat in a campaign of intimidation and bullying against the newcomer. Phil dethrones Len as the reigning club swimming champion and a night of heavy drinking ensues. A visit to a gay nightclub (to “pick up chicks”) confounds Len’s crisis of identity. Len and Meat force-feed Phil rum and they drive to the beach to sort out once and for all who is the bigger man.

DROWN, inspired by true events, is a bold and confronting film dealing with urgent problems. We aim to tell a suspenseful and gripping story and challenge audiences to consider issues around identity and sexuality. Why is male identity so narrowly defined? Why do we punish those who are different from the majority? Why do so many people turn a blind eye to bullying and intimidation when they know they should take a stand?

Bullying affects everyone either directly or indirectly. Very often, as depicted in Drown, bullying is related to sexuality – 90 per cent of LGBT report being bullied at school in the past year because of their sexuality.

By making, publicising and distributing Drown, we can make bullying a talking point and raise awareness about how young people are affected by issues around sexual identity.

Find out more at IndieGogo or the film’s website.