Star Trek Documentary With Lost Roddenberry Interview Footage Seeking Kickstarter Funding

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A lengthy rare interview with Gene Roddenberry that was believed to have been lost has now been found, and is hoped to become the basis for a new documentary on the birth of the Star Trek series he created. Catch a glimpse of the footage below, plus find out how you can help.

‘Gene Roddenberry Project’ Looking For Funding On Kickstarter

A new Kickstarter project is seeking crowdfunding for a documentary that will explore the birth of Star Trek with creator Gene Roddenberry. The doc will utilize lost footage from an on-camera interview done by producer James Forsher with Roddenberry back in April 1985. Forsher’s original interview was for a show on censorship in Hollywood. According to Forsher:

Roddenberry gave me an interview that explored the genesis of how Star Trek came about, his personal story of how he fought to create the show in the vision of the future he believed in. He passionately described the battles he fought with the networks, studios and an intolerant society that made the show a truly groundbreaking event in modern television history.

However (somewhat ironically) the Roddenberry interview was cut from the final show – and the interview was lost in a vault for almost 30 years. Now the film has been found and Forsher along with filmmaker Gabriel Taylor are seeking funding to use it as the basis of a new documentary.

Here is a video intro for the Kickstarter project.

They are seeking $15,000 to finish a half-hour length documentary. The money would go to paying for producing new interviews with those who knew Roddenberry along with paying for licensing stills and music. If they receive additional funding they will be able to expand the documentary using more footage, possibly up to feature-length (if they can get $75,000 or more). The deadline for the funding is August 10. Pledges can be as small as $1, but for $25 or more you will get a digital download of the doc. There are additional premiums for higher levels of funding. Go to Kickstarter.com to learn more and pledge.

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Hmm…so many good causes so few shekels.

I heard Gene Roddenberry speak 3 times during the mid-1970s and each time I came away utterly inspired and in awe of him. He was calm, almost quiet, not a so-called dynamic or coached speaker.

It was the content of what he presented and his belief in it, which was amazing – one sentence I always remember, “The people of Earth are light years ahead of their petty governments.”

This is a worthy project, I’ll scrape up a few dollars for it!

The precious essence of Star Trek, which Roddenberry fought so hard for- must not be lost. He was such an intelligent man, a visionary of peace, tolerance, and equality. How often does one like him come along? How often does a Star Trek happen?

Now, off to Kickstarter to contribute a few shekels.

I saw Gene Roddenberry speak at Macalaster College in St. Paul in the mid – 80’s. The auditorium was packed to the gills and the crowd gave him a very enthusiastic welcome (a prolonged standing ovation). It was a real pleasure to hear him speak with humor and wisdom about Star Trek and his life. I’ll be contributing to this Kickstarter.

I doubt there is anything new here that can’t be found elsewhere. I don’t see the point, of hashing it all out, yet again. Except, of course, to make money!

Ahead of his time…even today.

#5. Spock’s Bangs – July 22, 2014

With people claiming afresh that STAR TREK was never pulled from any Southern NBC affiliates and that it was all urban legend, I see a need.

Nothing against Roddenberry, but I’d like to see something about the other Gene—Coon that is. The man contributed a lot of elements to TOS and it’s hard to find much about him. Anyone know of any books about Coon…?

8. Vultan

Have you bought and read the Cushman books on Season 1 and 2? They include many of Coon’s notes, memos and letters RE: the episodes he worked on.

#9

No, I haven’t, but I suspected those books covered Coon’s contributions. Will have to seek them out. Thanks, Anthony.

So basically, they’re holding the footage to ransom to make a documentary that will tell us nothing new about the story.

How about just stick the footage on YouTube? This is not something to promote, this is something to chastise these assholes for.

I wonder why this article misspells Forsher’s name with the errant inclusion of a “c”?

FWIW here’s the documentary for which the footage apparently was intended:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0238275/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_4

and here you’ll see he’s been working on this since at least as far back as 2012 as “Star Trek: Banned in the USA”:

http://www.forsher.com/forsher/CV.html

A letter from Roddenberry declining to participate in Forsher’s “History of the Movies” project:

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTYwMFgxMjgw/z/F~kAAOSwPe1TysaP/$_1.JPG

TrekMovie.com Staff,

Thanks for addressing that. I appreciate the hard work you set upon to keep this site up and current.

I might be naïve in sending off my few shekels. I always think, well, we so easily hand over $20 to Paramount and give other big corporations our money all the time for this and that. I like the idea of independent creative Trek-connected people being able to keep Trek alive and growing – and remembering how amazing Roddenberry and others were.

Ah well, I didn’t send enough to send me to the poorhouse, where-ever that is. And my intentions were good. And maybe I contributed to something good–and–I resist being too skeptical on everything.

So if I send $25.00 I immediately GET a digital download of the Roddenberry interview minus the doc wrap around? Or do I just sit in wait in queue for the entire yet to be produced documentary, if an when it’s released?????

Ok, read the site. Will not get download until Jan 2015 IF they get the necessary funding by Aug. 10th. For $50.00 would get signed LE dvd copy. But after all these people donate and they don’t reach their necessary 15,000.00 goal……we get nothing, and the footage never see’s the light of day, which is 22 min. in length.