Fueling the Fire with Crowdfunding

At Fireman Creative we love all things involving firefighters. So does Denis Leary. He and his production company Apostle NYC teamed up with filmmakers Tom Putnam and Brenna Sanchez to complete a documentary about firefighters in Detroit called “Burn.”

The documentary tells the story of Detroit’s firefighters, who work in a city that experiences astonishingly high rates of arson. 95% of the film had been shot and 70% was funded, but to finish the project, more funding was needed. We work with Denis Leary and Apostle Productions, so we were excited to see where the project would go.

Apostle Productions used Kickstarter to fund the production of the documentary, and received $40,000 more than their $80,000 goal. The project exemplifies the power of celebrity to move large audiences to participate in crowdfunded projects and to focus attention on causes. The filmmakers finished the film, and it won an Audience Award at the Tribeca Film Festival. It has been screened in over 170 cities, and topped iTunes charts when it was released.

For your own copy, check out the Burn Webstore.