Walnut Creek, California, July 20, 2015 – Maine Coon Films, LLC (www.mainecoonfilms.com) announced today the official launch of their crowdfunding site on Kickstarter.com for “The Circle” film project which launched today Monday, July 20th.

Kickstarter campaign link: http://kck.st/1LydpY9

“After 2 ½ years of research and hard work, our team and associates have accomplished a major mile stone with our Kickstarter launch today,” said Kurt Cockrum, President of Maine Coon Films and one of the Executive producers of “The Circle.” “With the help of our friends and public support, we’ll be able to make “The Circle” film project come to fruition and honor the innocent victims of this terrible tragedy.” Cockrum added.

“The Circle” reveals the truth about the real-life story of nine young college hikers who met a horrible death on the Ural Mountain Kholat Syakhl (Mountain of the Dead) in February of 1959. The snowy pass where the incident occurred has since been named the Dyatlov Pass, after the group’s leader, Igor Dyatlov.

A lack of eyewitnesses has inspired speculation about the cause of the deaths. Suggestions range from UFOs to mind control experiments to Abominable Snowmen. Soviet investigators determined only that “a compelling unknown force” caused the deaths. The story becomes even more bizarre because the corpses showed no signs of struggle. However, two of the victims had fractured skulls, two suffered broken ribs and one poor girl was missing her tongue.

Kickstarter (www.kickstarter.com) is a global crowdfunding platform based in the United States. The company’s stated mission is to help bring creative projects to life. Kickstarter has reportedly received more than $1.5 billion in pledges from 7.8 million backers to fund 200,000 creative projects such as films, music, stage shows, comics, journalism, video games, technology and food-related projects.

People who back Kickstarter projects are offered tangible rewards and one of a kind experiences in exchange for their pledges. This model traces its roots to subscription model of arts patronage, where artists would go directly to their audiences to fund their work.

Maine Coon Films is a newly created, independent motion picture company, specializing in film production and distribution in both domestic and international markets. Its management team is well known and respected in the film industry, with years of experience and a long track record of success in film production, distribution and marketing.

More information can be found on the company web site at www.mainecoonfilms.com or email us at [email protected].