Hi,

My name is Zachary Levy and I am a documentary filmmaker based in New York. I have a film called STRONGMAN which won the Grand Jury Prize at Slamdance. The film has gotten lots of praise from other filmmakers but it's still very much under the radar in a bigger sense.

I've just started a DIY distribution plan for the film--and I have managed to make a pretty good start in a number of the better art house around the country. Last week, I got my first booking in a fully commercial theater--the Arena Grand in downtown Columbus, OH--for the first weekend in March.

Why so soon? Well, the first weekend in March in Columbus is the Arnold Sports Festival. Named after the Governator himself, "The Arnold" is the largest strength expo in the country-- 125,000 strength fans will be crammed into Columbus that weekend. It's a perfect opportunity to get the film some larger attention, but to do so I will have to have a decent showing. My competition that week at that theater will be the opening of Alice in Wonderland-- in 3D. If I no-one shows up for my 2D art-film movie, it might be the last shot I get at a commercial theater. If I do well, other theaters might take notice.

Of course, like most indie filmmakers I am flat broke right now. I would like to raise money to pay for on-the-ground promotion. My on-the-ground plan includes hopefully printing 5000 postcards and 500 mini-posters to distribute to all the local hotels, local art spots, etc... I would ideally like to hire local film major college students to do the ground distribution there-- get them involved in a real project and pay them something too for their time. Also, I would like to travel myself, Stanless Steel (the star of the film) and Barbara, his co-star / girlfriend / announcer to Columbus as well. It has long been Stan's dream to be in Columbus during The Arnold and I know people there would get a special thrill out of meeting him.

I'm not crazy about the idea of accepting money from people for nothing (and I would rather have lots of smaller donations than a few larger ones) so for every $12.50 people donate, I will send them an official "Stanless Steel" T-Shirt. So $25 donation gets two shirts etc... For $40, I will give three shirts and a deck of the playing cards (www.bushcards.com ... the same ones that are in the Smithsonian!) that allowed me to finish the film.

Between the printing, the travel, the labor costs-- I'm estimating that the budget for the trip will be $1600.

And just as importantly, if you know know people in Columbus, I would be thrilled if you spread the word to them about the screenings! I could use all the help, ideas, and suggestions to get people out of their houses and into the seats!

Thanks!

Zach