Kickstarter campaign launched to document stories of Southern Appalachian women

At midnight on July 9, Asheville-based photographer Ian MacLellan and musician Emma Scudder launched a Kickstarter campaign for a documentary they hope to create. Called We Are Here, the multimedia project will tell the stories of Southern Appalachian women and, in the process, “redefine the way that outsiders see and think about Appalachia.”

From a beekeeper to a bar-owner to an entrepreneur,  the documentary will focus on the lives of eight women through multimedia storytelling for the next two months. The project hopes to raise $2,000 by Aug. 9, and at the time of this writing, the project had received $417 from 17 backers.

Here is why MacLellan and Scudder want to create this project, according to their Kickstarter campaign page:

We want to show Appalachia through the eyes of the women that we meet who are rooted and proud to be here. Too often this place is portrayed in the media as backwards and full of people living tragic lives. This is not an honest reflection of how people feel. It needs to be understood that the land, people, and culture of this region have been manipulated and used for hundreds of years. Of course there has been struggle. And still, there have remained thriving community, pride, beauty and culture. It is a resilient place, full of resilient people. By documenting the lives and work of inspiring women who call Appalachia home, we hope to shed light on the true nature of this place. We want to express to others outside of Appalachia the real lives of people we encounter. We want the world to hear what these women are saying: we are here.

The Kickstarter page can be found here.

The project’s Tumblr can be found here.