
Travel Funds Needed for THIS LAND IS Feature
Donation protected
Help Us Complete Critical Research for the Feature Film This Land Is
Hello! I’m Bunnie Rivera, a Latina writer, director, and producer with over 30 years of experience in film, television, and community-based storytelling. As many of you know, my passion is to create stories through film to help those lives too often overlooked, whose voices are unheard and misunderstood, to be seen and heard. I wish to make films that invite audiences to consider empathy and compassion over judgement and criticism.
I want to give another HUGE Thank you to the supporters who have gotten us this far and helped us get the multi-award winning short film version of THIS LAND IS completed! Without you we couldn't have done it!
Continuing on this adventure, we are now in preproduction on the feature length version of THIS LAND IS. This project is deeply personal and based on a true story that follows a young boy named Jesse as he slips through the cracks of a system meant to protect him. This story represents the experience of millions of children across the U.S. who are navigating homelessness, instability, and trauma without support.
Again, thanks to the generous support we’ve received so far, we are incredibly proud to have completed the short film version of THIS LAND IS , which serves at Parts 1 and 2 of the Feature length version. The short has earned over 30 awards, including the Grand Prize Panavision Award (a $15,000 camera rental grant, originally reserved for a feature length film). The judges at City of Angels Film Festival were so moved by our story, they made the unprecedented decision to award the festival’s top prize to our short film instead.
Now that we are in pre-production to expand this into a full-length feature we urgently need your help!
Why We’re Asking
The next critical step is completing on-location research and interviews with the real-life family of the boy who inspired the film. These conversations are vital to finishing the feature-length script with honesty, depth, and integrity. We want this story to be authentic!
We are up against fast-approaching grant deadlines, and research trips must happen in the next few weeks in order for us to complete the script to meet grant funding requirements and deadlines. In addition, the Panavision Camera Rental Grant expires by October 2026, which means we must complete shooting in the summer 2026 and everything must be ready for the shoot. That includes casting, crew, permits, insurance, locations, etc.
Your support will help cover:
- Travel and lodging for interviews
- Location research and documentation
- Materials and permissions
- Legal releases and on-site expenses, etc.
Why This Story Matters
With over 4.2 million youth in the U.S. facing homelessness each year, THIS LAND IS exposes the toll of a system stretched far beyond its limits. And children are the most vulnerable. The trauma they suffer continues to affect them their whole lives. It’s a story about survival, generational trauma, and the people society overlooks, told through the eyes of a child.
We believe this film can help change assumptions, build empathy, and drive change. But we can’t do it alone.
If you can give, my heartfelt thanks to you! If you can’t, please help by sharing this campaign with someone who can.
Organizer
Bunnie Rivera
Organizer
Milwaukie, OR