Our Purpose
Why Awareness of Living Kidney Donation Matters
The skyrocketing rate of kidney disease, the enormous annual cost of dialysis and the human suffering of end stage renal disease are the face of America’s kidney deficit. It’s one of the most complex medical issues facing our society. While complex problems require complex solutions, experts agree that increased awareness about living kidney donation is a broad solution that can trigger widespread positive change. The kidney transplant/donation community is rallying around Abundant because our film about selfless giving features living kidney donors. It’s expected that this kind of attention will begin new conversations about living kidney donation in diverse communities around the country. With greater awareness, it’s believed progress can be made on these enormous challenges.
The Kidney Deficit

The Racial Disparity
The Economics

Our Solution
Abundant has the potential to reach a general audience because our content addresses ideas we all think we understand: generosity and giving. Abundant features the CrowdSource for Life cast, who create a rare and interesting hook for the film: They are all living kidney donors and the majority of them are non-directed living kidney donors.
Our society is fascinated with these extreme altruists who have given kidneys to complete strangers. These unusal people come from many walks of life, but their common choice to give a kidney away causes us to want to know what makes them tick. This is the basis for a compelling film.

Elevating a Message for a Mass Audience
To reach a mass audience, a film needs mass appeal. Abundant has that through by incorporating elements that appeal to many different audiences into one production. This is called cross-topic appeal. And Abundant will have plenty of elements and stories that appeal to a general audience, not just a kidney donation audience.
CrowdSource for Life‘s cast may all be living kidney donors, but their stories are interesting in different ways. Each of their stories was selected for its unique themes, narratives, and perspectives. Our story development and performance processes will turn our cast of amateur storytellers into profound, expressive writers, their stories into stage performance pieces and their performances into memorable moments of connection. The result will be a set of varied and compelling stories, each with a different meaning, purpose and direction. A wide range of people in a general audience will relate to and connect with our cast’s stories.
CrowdSource for Life will be staged in Dallas, Texas before a live theatre audience. Our production team will record the storytellers’ monologue performances with six cameras in a classic theatre setting brought to life by innovative set design and staging. This will make Abundant a colorful, watchable journey through the topic of giving, which will keep viewers engaged.
But what will keep an audience engaged is that, at its most basic, storytelling creates connections. As fundamental human communications, stories have brought people together in a tradition that predates history. Stories are present in every culture. When a listener connects to a story and recognizes their experiences or perspective in the story, irreplaceable human connection forms: the understanding that “I am not alone.” This is why Maitri River Productions selected storytelling as the format for CrowdSource for Life and Abundant. We want the audience to be inspired by the selfless giving and empathy of our cast.
With all these elements in play, Abundant will engage and entertain a broad audience and gently introduce the value of living kidney donation. In this way, the film will cause a great increase in awareness about living kidney donation.
Wide Support in the Kidney Donation and Transplant Community
See a full list of our sponsors here.
Join us! Make a tax-deductible donation to our project here.
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