Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin is a documentary film covering the life and work of 86-year-old author Ursula K. Le Guin. Or rather, it will be a documentary film when the crew finishes production — which is why the folks behind the film have turned to Kickstarter to secure the last bit of their budget.

Ursula K. Le Guin, for anyone unfamiliar, is a prolific author of many books and stories that fall under fantasy or science fiction. Her Earthsea fantasy series is rather popular, for example, though her science fiction, like The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed are commonly referred to in genre circles. The short of the long is that she has written quite a lot of important material over her career — and Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin aims to examine all that.

The problem is that all the editing, licensing archival footage and getting a score done and added takes money — a not insignificant amount of money, as it turns out, and the documentary crew has already spent seven years capturing footage and talking with Le Guin. All that time and effort isn’t free, and they’re not done yet. However, they’re awful close, thanks to the National Endowment for the Humanities.

See, according to Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin director and producer Arwen Curry, the National Endowment for the Humanities has granted the hour-long documentary a production grant that mostly covers the expenses. However, the catch is that, for those funds to be released, the crew has to raise the full budget first — thus the $80,000 Kickstarter campaign.

There’s no definitive date set for the release of the documentary, and the campaign does admit that sometimes, unexpected problems arise that can raise expenses or delay production. However, with over $50,000 already raised and an ending date of March 4, it certainly seems like the crew will make its goal and then some.

Source: Kickstarter