The opinions expressed herein are those of the author, and not necessarily those of The New Agenda.

A New Mexico filmmaker whose grandmother was a leader of the Women’s Suffrage Movement of the turn of the last century has launched a people-power campaign to fund a film on her grandmother’s life and cause.

Santa Fe area filmmaker Marguerite Kearns has launched a campaign on Kickstarter.com, the popular and innovative site where people show their support for creative projects by pledging anything from small to substantial amounts of money to them. The campaign will enable Kearns to obtain the backing she needs to complete her film and get it before audiences nationwide.

“My grandmother, Edna Buckman Kearns, was one of the courageous, determined women whose insistence on winning the right to vote carried forward the founding ideals of our country,” says Kearns. “Few people today know of the struggle it took to win women the right to vote. It is essential that this important part of our nation’s history not be forgotten.”

By seeking funding support for her production through Kickstarter, Kearns hopes to involve a wide range of people in the project and to use the campaign as a means of spreading word about the dramatic struggle it took before American women received the right to vote.

Kearns’s film tells her grandmother’s story, and puts it in the larger context of the Women’s Suffrage Movement, by following her travels from town-to-town on Long Island, NY in a wagon named “The Spirit of 1776,” so named because it was believed to have originated during the Revolutionary War. Later found to have been built years later, the historic wagon now resides in the collection of the New York State Museum in Albany.

Says Kearns,

“It is especially important that young people know about the women’s suffrage movement. I emphasize the bridge between the generations in my film, and show through a very personal account how my grandmother Edna’s struggle a century ago paved the way for the full participation of women and girls in our society today.”

Kearns is seeking to raise $5,000 through her Kickstarter campaign, primarily to complete a new edit of the film, which exists in a rough-cut version, including a new sound track. The funding also will enable her to produce a final cut, which will be available on DVD, and get it out to audiences. A range of valuable and topical rewards are offered to contributors.

L to R, my grandmother Edna Buckman Kearns, her daughter Serena Kearns (my aunt), and friend Irene Davison

Kearns, who is a journalist, writer, and speaker, plans on using the film as a platform for an expanded public awareness campaign on the Women’s Suffrage Movement. She also is available as a speaker and can assist groups sponsor turn-of-the-century-style tea parties to celebrate and build awareness of the Women’s Suffrage Movement.

To see more on Kearns’s film and to contribute to her campaign, people can go to www.kickstarter.com and enter “Suffrage Wagon” in the search bar at the top of the front page.  She also invites people to visit her web site at www.suffragewagon.org and her suffrage blog at  suffragewagon.wordpress.com. Kearns can be reached by email at suffragewagon@gmail.com and by phone at 888-303-7471.