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Nobody would fund her film. She raised $331,000 anyway.

17 August 2026

"How hard could it be to make a film?"

Taryn Brumfitt was a photographer with three young kids and no film experience when she asked herself that question. She had posted one photograph, a before and after that ran the opposite way to every before and after you have seen, and it went around the world. Seven thousand messages landed in her inbox from strangers telling her how they felt about their bodies.

She wrote a book. It did well. It was not enough. So she decided to make a documentary, and found out very quickly that first time filmmakers do not get funded. In her words, no one was going to take a punt on her.

So she went to Kickstarter. She set out to raise $200,000 over 60 days. She hit it on day 12 and finished at $331,000, backed by 8,909 people who had never met her. The film went on to beat Guardians of the Galaxy on opening night at the German box office.

What she says about that period is the part worth sitting with. It was not a clean run. She sold a car. She worked a second job. And the thing she credits most is not talent, it is getting the ego out of the way: "If you're the smartest person in the room, there's something wrong."

The full conversation with Sav Perera drops tomorrow.

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