Movie on Gosnell 'House of Horrors' Nearing $2.1 Million Crowdfunding Goal
A film team hoping to produce a movie about Pennsylvania abortion provider Kermit Gosnell has raised over $1.9 million for its project, presently titled "America's Biggest Serial Killer."
With less than a week to go, the production company Ann and Phelim Media must reach their $2.1 million goal by next Monday before midnight. If they fail to reach the goal, then the funds will be returned.
"Dr. Kermit Gosnell is the most prolific serial killer in American History, but almost no one knows who he is," reads their crowdfunding page on Indiegogo.com. "The mainstream media or Hollywood don't think this is a story. Even though Gosnell killed more people than Gary Ridgeway, John Wayne Gacey, The Zodiac Killer and Ted Bundy combined."
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As of Wednesday morning, the project has garnered over 20,000 funders, with social media attention including approximately 46,000 likes on Facebook and 23,900 Tweets on Twitter.
"Please pledge right now. We tell a lot about ourselves by the stories we choose to tell and the ones we want to cover up or ignore. Please help us tell this important story," pleaded the producers."This is your chance to bypass the media 'information gatekeepers' to get tens of millions of Americans thinking about what happened in Philadelphia. Please send a message that we don't have to wait for someone else to tell the stories that matter, we can do it ourselves."
Last year, Gosnell was found guilty of killing three babies and committing involuntary manslaughter when one patient died at his abortion clinic and he was sentenced to life in prison. Later an additional 30 years was added to the 72-year-old's sentence when he was also found guilty of running a pill mill at his facility.
Initially ignored by most media, the Gosnell trial eventually garnered much attention as it made some question the effectiveness of how abortion clinics are regulated.
Gosnell's clinic was described by prosecutors as a "house of horrors" where babies and women died and fetal parts were collected by employees.
The effort to fund the Gosnell movie was mired in controversy, though, as the independent filmmakers behind the project claimed that the crowdfunding site Kickstarter had censored them. Kickstarter CEO Yancey Strickler has denied that any censorship took place, as reported by Josh Encinias of the conservative publication the National Review.
"They chose to make two of the copyedits we recommended. They launched elsewhere. And then they proceeded to claim that the copyedits we recommended and they adopted were tantamount to censorship. We wish them the best of luck," stated Strickler to NR. "But trying to make this about something it's not, stoking a make-believe fire to incite publicity, and imagining Kickstarter as a partisan battlefield is wrong. We exist to support creators and creativity, not a political ideology."
After leaving Kickstarter, the filmmakers posted their crowdfunding request on Indiegogo, having forty days to reach their financial goal.
Ann and Phelim Media have previously used the crowdfunding method to produce the necessary funds to make the film Fracknation.
