The director of a documentary movie about the environmental vigilante known as the Fox says he’ll finish the film even though a Kickstarter fundraising campaign for it came up short.
July 22 was the deadline for a campaign director Matt Pniewski had waged on the Kickstarter crowd-funding website to raise $10,000 to finish the documentary. But when that date ended, 63 Kickstarter supporters had pledged only $5,870, which means the entire pledge effort is canceled.
The Fox sabotaged polluting industrial companies in the Fox Valley and the Chicago-Gary area between 1969 and the 1990s. His first attacks focused on plugging up the discharge pipe from a soap factory in Aurora that he accused of releasing fatty debris into the Fox River. Later efforts included throwing dead animals and garbage onto the desks and front porches of executives he accused of polluting. He left behind notes saying the polluters had been struck by “FOX,” with the O consisting of a fox’s face.
Only after he died in 2001 was his real identity revealed to the world by his family and friends: The Fox was James Phillips of Montgomery, who made his living as a middle-school science teacher and later as an investigator for the Kane County Environmental and Water Resources Division.
Pniewski, who said he already has shot most of “The Story of the Fox,” had hoped to use the $10,000 to buy licensing rights to use various photos, interviews and music in the movie, and to film re-enactments of the vigilante’s exploits.
“Even though we did not meet our goal, we will be continuing to film,” Pniewski said Friday. “We will have to cut down on licensed material and re-creations.”
Pniewski said a Courier-News/Beacon-News story about the project has raised interest in the film.
“We did get people calling asking to help out thanks to the article,” he said. “It put us in touch with a lot of good people. Some of them were interested in investing, yes. Not on a grand level, and not enough to bring us up to our goal, but people who will still be willing to help out in any way possible.”
Pniewski said he expects to finish the film by February. “I have a meeting next Wednesday where we are hoping to schedule the rest of production, with our new, more limited production plan,” he said. “I don’t know if we will be filming re-creations in the Fox Valley area because our crew needs to discuss what re-creations we will be able to film without the 10K from Kickstarter.
“The Kickstarter was a big success for us in every way but the ultimate goal,” Pniewski said. “Even at close to 6K pledged, that shows a genuine interest in the production that we can show people down the line.
“People have been sending me emails with old photos and newspapers about the Fox, asking me if I’ve seen it. I have some people telling me they didn’t know Jim was the Fox. The response alone has made it worth it!” Pniewski said.
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