OPEN: a Journey through Love - Documentary about ENM
Anna and Jace had the honor of participating in a documentary about ethical non-monogamy called OPEN: a Journey through Love by award winning documentarian Roderick Stevens II. We wanted to share the project with you all so you can support the project and keep an eye out for when it's finished.
From the Indigogo project:
This film examines the profound positive effects ethical non-monogamy can have on relationships.
A Road Trip
Last year whilst road tripping around the lower fifty on a series of creative missions, I happened upon a podcast in which a long-time, happily married couple shared their experience opening their marriage and embarking on a personal journey into the lifestyle which is becoming known as Ethical Non-Monogamy (ENM).
Upon my return, I proclaimed with great enthusiasm to my loving partner, “That whole sex with other people thing sounds fun and all, but we absolutely must not settle for anything less than the kind of intimacy I’m hearing about!”. I don't remember exactly how she reacted but there were no injuries, and so the conversation began.
The seed for this project was planted. On the drive home from a "lifestyle" event in L.A. we agreed this was a subject that needed to come out of the shadows, and as a filmmaker I realized that I could be uniquely placed to create a documentary examining Ethical Non-Monogamy from a different angle. While titillating content can be fun, and not to say my diverse and wonderful subjects are not each compelling, rather than focusing on the sexual aspect I wanted to go deeper.
Another Road Trip!
Armed with my equipment, I hit the road again to talk to people all over the country and from around the world about how something so counter to what society teaches us about monogamy could have such profound positive effects on people and relationships. While my lover joined me when she could around her day-job commitments, for the most part this was a one-man operation, exhausting, taxing and eye-opening beyond belief.
Thus began my Journey through Love, which has been an incredible, life-changing adventure. Speaking with dozens of folks from individuals, couples, swingers and people in polyamorous relationships to podcasters, content creators, therapists and authors has not only resulted in inspiring content, but on a personal level it’s been downright soul-nourishing and I’m so excited to share the experience and now I'm asking for your help.
Who knew...that spending more than 10 months traveling over 20,000 miles to gather 80+ hours of footage would cost money?!
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Post production will take hundreds of hours editing the raw footage to prepare the film for the world and while I’ve no doubt this will be completed, without your help it could take many months rather than weeks as I work through the small mountain of debt incurred over the course of filming. In preparation for broad distribution the film has been created in 4K, which meets the highest standards of streamers and potential distributors, which also means an unimaginable amount of data storage is needed.
Own a piece!
We’ve come up with an assortment of items, perks and incentives so you can participate in and own a piece of this, what we believe is unique and even groundbreaking film, including t-shirts, coffee tumblers, hats, keychains, etc or even custom artwork by Roderick himself. Check out more at the Indiegogo campaign: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/open-a-journey-through-love#/
Learn more about Roderick and OPEN: a Journey through Love at the following links:
- https://twitter.com/Swingtroverts
