Oklahoma filmmaker Elijah Felkins launches crowdfunding campaign to shoot Kairath, his dystopian action feature about grief

Oklahoma filmmaker Elijah Felkins launches crowdfunding campaign to shoot Kairath, his dystopian action feature about grief

Brie Clayton October 16, 2026

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With exclusive commentary by Elijah Felkins to Creative COW

An award-winning Oklahoma City writer and director has launched a crowdfunding campaign on Seed&Spark to produce Kairath, a feature-length dystopian action film and his feature directorial debut. The campaign seeks $35,000 to cover production costs ahead of a January 2027 shoot in Oklahoma and runs through late November 2026.

Kairath is set on a future Earth that most of humanity has abandoned for colonies in space. Corporations and guilds control what remains of the United States. Taren Vesper, a former member of the Mercenary Guild, has lived alone near the southern border of the Northern American Territory for 20 years. When another mercenary is sent to kill him, Taren is drawn into a plot that threatens every human living off-world, and he learns that his wife, believed dead for two decades, may still be alive.

Beneath the action, the film is about grief and the idea that everyone deserves a chance at life. The director began writing Kairath in July 2025 and spent two months facing writer's block, despite having a complete outline. The first draft finally moved forward once he was able to connect Taren's story to his own: his mother died in July 2022.

For a long time I thought that with enough time, I'd be fine, said writer and director Elijah Felkins. In order to grieve, you have to find some kind of closure. Then you can start to heal. Taren has spent twenty years wallowing in depression, questioning all of his decisions, and this story forces him to stop waiting. The question the film really asks the audience is, what does closure look like for you?

The campaign's $35,000 goal covers the minimum that the production needs to roll cameras: $10,000 for cast, $7,500 for the art department, $5,000 for equipment rentals, $5,000 for footage storage, $4,500 to feed a cast and crew of about 40, and $3,000 for wardrobe, hair and makeup. Most locations and equipment are already secured. Principal photography is scheduled for two and a half weeks in January 2027, using Oklahoma's winter landscapes to build the film's abandoned world. Funding for post-production, including editing, sound mixing, color grading and festival submissions, will be raised after the shoot if necessary.

Most of this crew are people I have worked with for years, and they are giving their time up front because they believe in this story, he said. The campaign is what lets us pay our actors and put this world on screen. But we will still need more funding in order to compensate our incredible crew and pay for the post-production process.

Kairath stars Nate Huntley as Taren Vesper, with Michelle Mestayer, Bryan Whorton, Charlie Pardue, Joseph Lawrence Hoffman, Melanie Petrila and Justin Marlow. Sully McCollum is the lead producer. Director of photography Nathan Price recently worked on the camera team for The Rivals of Amziah King, starring Matthew McConaughey, and has worked on projects for HBO, Amazon, Netflix, Hulu and Showtime. Composer Spencer Smythe, who scored the director's award-winning short The Freedom Fighters, returns to write the score of Kairath. The crew also includes production designer Aubree Payne, costume designer Gabei Williams, storyboard artist Joshua Rinehart, casting director Sofia Menniti, first assistant director Sam Lee and stunt coordinator Riley McGee.

He has been making films since 2019 and has directed more than 20 narrative short films, including The Accused and Six Months Tomorrow (2026), a short about two friends learning to lean on each other through grief. The Freedom Fighters won the 2025 Oklahoma City 48 Hour Film Festival and screened at Filmapalooza 2026 in Lisbon, Portugal. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Film and Media Studies from the University of Oklahoma, where he also taught film production for 2 years, and has worked on hundreds of film and commercial productions throughout his career. Some of his credits are listed on IMDb and at elijahfelkins.com.

Supporter incentives on the Kairath Seed&Spark campaign page include digital trading cards of the film's characters, behind-the-scenes access from set, signed posters, a Kairath hat, a signed soundtrack CD, an invitation to the private cast and crew screening and, at the top tier, a set visit with an executive producer credit. The Kairath crowdfunding announcement video is available on YouTube, and production updates are posted on Instagram at @kairath.film.

Creative COW reached out to Elijah to hear more about his filmmaking process.

Creative COW: Can you tell us a little about your plans and funding allocation for post-production?

Elijah Felkins: Within our budgeting, we have allocated funds for all aspects of post-production, however we do not have those funds in hand as of the time of this conversation. In a perfect world, we'll have all of the funding needed for production and post prior to filming in January, however, that is not the case. We are still actively looking for investors and more support on our crowdfunding campaign on Seed and Spark!

Our editor's name is Benjamin Haller, and he is an editor based in Dallas (one of only a handful of our non-Oklahoma based crew members). He and I both went to the University of Oklahoma for Film and Media Studies, which is how we first began working together years ago.

Kairath is going to be edited in Adobe Premiere Pro. As of right now, coloring is also planned to be done in Premiere, however that is potentially subject to change based on potential future funding.

Creative COW: What cameras do you plan to rent? Do you have any other production details that you can share?

Elijah Felkins:

LINK:	https://creativecow.net/oklahoma-filmmaker-elijah-felkins-launches-cro...
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