You can help turn this Cape Town-made animated trailer into a graphic novel

A little under a year ago, an animated teaser trailer surfaced on Vimeo. The video, for a project called Kariba, quickly racked up over 250 000 views and made it to the front page of Reddit. This online success led to features in Variety, Animation and the respected industry website Cartoon Brew.

Now, with the goal of raising funding for a full-length feature film, the team behind Kariba, Blue Forest Collective, has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a graphic novel expanding the story.

Set in Zimbabwe, Kariba interweaves history and mythology through an imaginative retelling of the embattled construction of the Kariba dam in the 1950s. Blue Forest team lead Daniel Clarke’s grandfather, a Zimbabwean, is responsible for sparking the story idea, Clarke explains. “My grandfather told me about the repeated disasters the dam suffered during its construction, and the local legend that Nyami-Nyami, the river spirit, was angry that the dam had separated him from his wife,” says Clarke.

Read more: Exploding Kittens is now the largest Kickstarter campaign ever

Due to launch on 1 March, the campaign has received a boost from Cape Town’s Triggerfish Animation Studios, which has pledged to match 50% of the funds raised.

“We have been impressed by the quality of work produced by the talented team behind KARIBA and have the utmost faith in their abilities to create a world-class product,” says Anthony Silverston, head of development at Triggerfish. “The Kickstarter campaign will allow us to see if there is enough of a support base to pursue the project long-term with the ultimate goal to produce a feature length film with global appeal.”

Blue Forest’s version envisages the story through the eyes of Nyami-Nyami’s daughter, a girl named Siku who develops a friendship with the dam-builder’s son, Amedeo.

Read more: Kickstarter’s 2014 score card shows a total of $529 million pledged by 3.3 million backers

“We received huge encouragement right from the get-go to do a crowdfunding campaign for a feature film,” says Clarke. “The idea of starting with a graphic novel rather than a script, and then expanding it into a movie, was a natural fit for the Kickstarter platform, the project’s audience and for myself as a visual artist,” he explains.

The team aims to deliver a 100+ page graphic novel, available on a limited edition preorder basis in both hardcover and softcover.

Read more: Can this Kickstarter help selfies leave the Earth?

“Triggerfish has brought us a lot closer to making our vision a reality,” adds Clarke’s team-mate Daniel Snaddon, who will serve as story editor. “But in the end, it’s all going to be up to the community we can attract around our vision. We hope KARIBA fans are as excited about this next step as we are.”

Blue Forest Collective is comprised of Daniel Clarke, Daniel Snaddon (co-director of BBC’s STICK MAN, nominated for 3 British Animation awards) as the team’s story editor and Jac Hamman (animator, illustrator and independent filmmaker) as the animation director. Sarah Scrimgeour (independent 3d artist, animator) completes the team as the digital strategist.

The Kickstarter campaign will run for 30 days and will aim to raise US$20 000. Depending on the size of the pledge made, backers will receive a variety of rewards, such as a printed copy of the graphic novel, original character sketches, and their name printed on the contributor page. Pledge options start from as little as $5.