Director Would Love to Show 'Dog Days' at Silverdocs

Now that the D.C. hot dog vendor documentary Dog Days has surpassed its Kickstarter goal, raising more than $33,000, filmmaker Laura Waters Hinson is turning her attention to finishing up the movie and getting it out to the public.

"We were so thrilled," she said of the film's fundraising success, which drew about 500 donors. "I'm surprised that so many people who didn't even know us supported us." Those donations came in numbers like $100 or even in one case, $1,000.

The documentary looks at two entrepreneurs, one starting a business to cater to D.C. street vendors and another twenty-year veteran of the industry. "I think that seeing a film about D.C. is a big deal for people," she said. "There's also a lot of support for the street vending issue; it's kind of hot and sexy right now."

Waters Hinson has seen everyone from those supporters to free market advocates to entrepreneurial boosters come out in support of the film, which doesn't have an agenda, she says. "People are attaching themselves to it for different reasons, and that's great."

The film is still trying to get additional funding from such sources as grants to help with marketing and promotion. The goal is to have the film "locked" by April, so that no major changes are being made after that, and then to finish post-production in May. In a perfect world, its debut would happen at the local fim festival Silverdocs in late June.

"I hate to even say it's a dream, because I have no idea if it will happen, but I would love to premiere at Silverdocs," she said. "But I feel silly saying it because so do 10,000 other films." If that doesn't happen, she will shop it around to other places such as the Toronto Film Festival, with the goal of having it go to broadcast (she sees a theatrical run as unlikely, given it doesn't cover a national issue).
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