Filmmaker Dawn Jackson’s documentary Pointe: Dancing on a Knife’s Edge has premiered, thanks to fundraising through the Australian Cultural Fund.

“I never intended to fundraise almost an entire documentary project,” says filmmaker and former dancer Dawn Jackson.

But Jackson has done just that, including raising $150,000 through the Australian Cultural Fund (ACF) over the last six years to help complete her feature documentary Pointe: Dancing on a Knife’s Edge, which premiered last month at CinefestOZ in Busselton, Western Australia.

The film tells the story of Australian dancer and choreographer Floeur Alder – daughter of renowned dancers and teachers Lucette Aldous and Alan Alder – who survived a vicious random attack in Perth as she began her professional career.

Jackson met Alder and her family while studying dance at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in the late 1980s. After the attack, the pair reconnected while Alder was finding her place in dance again.

Jackson was struck by Alder’s “real quest, this real desire for healing and for liberation. It wasn’t just an, ‘oh, I want to be a dancer’ career kind of thing.” 

Their collaboration unfolded organically, first with filming Alder’s performances, then with the idea of confronting the attack – and its ripples – in documentary form.

“I thought her story was really important to share, and also her parents’ as well,” Jackson says.

But creating such a film carries big costs, which is where ACF came in. Operated by Creative Australia, it’s a free crowdfunding platform for independent artists and arts collectives to raise money for their creative works through tax deductible donations.

The platform is particularly helpful for artists who don’t have the administrative support that arts institutions enjoy. It’s free and easy to use, it provides a professional online donation mechanic, where tax receipts are automatically sent to donors.

“I've used it over a number of years and it's so user-friendly now,” Jackson says. “You can get a campaign up really quickly and get going on it. So thumbs up!”

Since the platform started in 2003 its demand – and impact – have increased.

“In the last financial year, over $15 million of donations have gone through the Australian Cultural Fund to support arts projects,” says James Boyd, Creative Australia’s State Manager Development & Partnerships for Western Australia – one of five locally based colleagues providing a free fundraising coaching service. 

“The state managers are a free resource for independent artists and arts workers… to help them identify who might support certain projects, how to strategically approach that objective, how to specifically ask for support over a period of time, and then to look after those relationships,” he says.

“It’s quite daunting to put a creative project on the Australian Cultural Fund and try and raise money from donations. The deeper your strategic thinking, the more likely you'll succeed.”

Campaigns range widely. Some projects raise $1,000 in a short burst, while for Pointe, Jackson and Boyd broke the campaign into several stages with goals of $50,000–$80,000.

Boyd cautions the platform doesn’t work for every artist.

“It’s important that the Australian Culture Found isn't seen as the silver bullet,” he says. “If artists are well connected with a network of potential supporters or have a project that's particularly compelling … then it becomes a very valuable tool.”

Pointe had both. 

“It was a very compelling story and they had a big network. They were known nationally and internationally. But that doesn't necessarily make fundraising easy,” Jackson says of working with Alder and her family.

Jackson’s first ACF campaign raised only 29% of the goal.

“But in subsequent years, and with all those skills and learning and building all those relationships … we met or exceeded our targets,” Jackson says.

In the end, approximately 60% of Pointe’s total budget came from philanthropic donations from 260 donors through ACF and two other fundraising platforms over a total of nine years. Additional funding came from a film award and via the Producer Equity Program, an initiative of Screen Australia.

Boyd highlights the strategy of encouraging donors to come onboard with a smaller target and then building trust over time. 

“She's been one of the most successful independent creative fundraisers in my experience as a coach in this area, simply because she understood the approach, followed through with action and was patient enough to allow the success to happen over time,” Boyd says.

Jackson would catch up with Boyd every six months to assess the campaign strategy and also speak with him when she faced a challenging moment. 

“I’d get to a place of, ‘I'm stuck, I'm out of ideas’ and he'd open that next door for me,” Jackson says. “That right piece of information from him at the right time was absolutely critical and to have someone here in the state that understands how things work here.”

While the State Manager Development & Partnerships service provides personal campaign advice, artists lead outreach through their own networks.

“I found the best way was to pitch and gather people into a small, intimate space,” she says.

With the support of The Backlot Perth, a 50-seat cinema run by Pointe’s distributor Ian Hale of Halo Films, Jackson would “invite a few people along, have a coffee, talk about the film and just keep showing people the progress of the film.”

Crucially, Floeur Alder and her parents attended those sessions, drawing on their dance community connections.

“Goodness knows, we did pitch after pitch after pitch. There were probably 15 times over those six years,” Jackson says.

In between, Jackson emailed updates, met one-to-one with supporters and shared private viewing links as the editing process progressed.

“I loved sharing our news, whether it was good or not so good or challenging,” she says of building trust with donors.

Pointe also benefitted from the ACF Boost donation-matching initiative and two major donors who matched donations at key moments, such as during editing, when archival footage licensing costs became clearer.

“She was so determined and had such courage and strategic understanding,” Boyd says. “It does take courage, not only to make a film and believe in yourself, but also to raise the money from philanthropic sources. She followed through.”

Jackson is taking a moment to appreciate seeing Pointe on the big screen.

“We’re just so grateful. It just wouldn't have been made without the people that supported us,” Jackson says.

“Now we get to share this amazing story of this beautiful courageous young woman and her extraordinary family. It’s really rewarding to finally get to this ‘Pointe’. We use that pun a lot!”

Visit the Australian Cultural Fund website for more on creating and supporting artist campaigns. Learn more about the State Manager Development & Partnerships service here. You can see a trailer for Pointe: Dancing on a Knife’s Edge here or follow the film’s Facebook page for information on upcoming screenings.