Born of Hope 2009

As somewhat of a Tolkien nerd I have a lot to say about this work. Born of Hope is a low budget film that follows the path of Arathorn, who would later sire Aragorn. It premiered at Ring*Con 2009, which meant that they met their deadline. In my opinion, that fact alone gives this piece 3 stars. If you've ever been a part of any independently funded creative project then you know how harsh a taskmaster time can be. Director, Kate Madison (who also played a supporting role), spent her life savings funding the production. Her and the cast/crew would spend six years filming, with principal photography beginning in 2008. Apparently they would camp in order to meet schedules.

When something is low budget, it has to be carried by the burning passion of everyone involved, and that's what is apparent here. Christopher Dane, the actor playing Arathorn, became heavily involved in the film's creation, editing the script and the footage itself.

At the risk of sounding like I'm talking down to the very hard and arduous work that has gone into this, Born of Hope reminds me of how difficult it is to make any film. How we are all conditioned by the visual language of big budget movies. The first thing that struck me was the lack of continuity in lighting, and how in the hell do you fix that with their resources? These people had to shoot and reshoot at different times in the day out in the woods and any director will tell you that natural lighting is a nightmare. For a budget of only $25,000 they did very well. Madison had to release this for free due to copyright so it's safe to assume that none of that money was reimbursed.

Born of Hope is a labour of love and absolutely does its best to bring LOTR's backstory to the screen. It should stand as a testament to just how far people can take a shoestring budget if they commit their everything to the production.