Firefly

Firefly: The Emily Remler Story
Help us bring Emily Remler's extraordinary story to the screen

In 2027, Emily Remler would have turned 70.

For a generation of musicians, Emily was one of the most exciting and distinctive jazz guitarists of her time. She recorded seven albums as a leader, performed around the world and established herself in an overwhelmingly male corner of the jazz world — all before her tragic death at just 32.

Yet today, outside jazz and guitar circles, remarkably few people know her name.

We want to change that.

Firefly: The Emily Remler Story is a feature-length documentary about Emily's remarkable life, music and legacy — and about what happens when an extraordinary artist disappears from cultural memory.

Photo by Steve Bailey

Who was Emily Remler?

Emily was a prodigiously talented guitarist, composer and teacher whose playing combined a deep connection to the jazz tradition with a voice unmistakably her own.

Her career took her from Berklee College of Music to New Orleans and eventually onto stages around the world. She earned the admiration of some of the most celebrated musicians in jazz and became an inspiration to generations of guitarists who followed her.

But Emily's story is about much more than jazz.

It is a story about ambition, identity and obsession: the drive required to become extraordinary, the experience of being a woman in a musical world dominated by men, the personal struggles that accompanied her success, and the question of what remains of an artist after they are gone.

At the heart of Firefly is a simple question:

How could someone this talented have been so widely forgotten?

A film told through Emily's own voice

We don't want to make a conventional music biography.

Over the course of production, we have uncovered an extraordinary collection of archival material — rare performances, television appearances, photographs and interviews in which Emily speaks candidly about her music, her ambitions and her life.

Wherever possible, Emily tells her own story.

That archive is combined with testimony from the family, friends, musicians, collaborators and younger artists whose lives she touched.

The documentary is being made with the cooperation of Emily Remler's estate, giving us unique access to her story and legacy.

The project has also received cooperation and archival support from Berklee College of Music, where Emily studied, and the Musicians Institute, where she later taught.

We have spoken with musicians and figures from across Emily's world and the wider jazz community, building a portrait not simply of the guitarist audiences saw on stage, but of the complicated, funny, driven and immensely talented woman behind the instrument.

Why now?

Emily's 70th birthday in 2027 gives us an extraordinary opportunity to reintroduce her to the world.

Nearly four decades after her death, her influence continues to travel from one generation of musicians to another. Young guitarists are discovering her recordings online. Musicians continue to cite her as an influence. And conversations about the women whose contributions to music have been overlooked have taken on new urgency.

We believe this is the moment for Emily's story to be told properly — not simply as an important woman in jazz, but as an important artist, full stop.

Our ambition is for Firefly to introduce Emily to audiences who have never encountered her while giving the musicians and fans who already love her the film they have been waiting for.

The film is already well underway

This is not a campaign to begin making Firefly.

The film has already been shot and is well into production.

Over the past year, we have travelled to meet people who knew Emily, conducted extensive interviews and assembled rare archival material from both institutional and private collections.

We now have the ingredients of the film.

We need your help to finish it.

The money raised through this campaign will go directly toward completing the documentary: the final edit, archive and music licensing, motion graphics, sound design and mix, color grading, mastering and the other finishing work required to turn our work-in-progress into a finished feature film ready for audiences.

Our goal is to complete Firefly in time to begin its festival journey around the year of Emily's 70th birthday.

Who are we?

My name is Al Naffah, the writer, director and producer of Firefly.

I'm also a jazz musician, and I came to this project because I couldn't understand why a guitarist as extraordinary as Emily wasn't better known.

Together with my friend Michael Rushworth, a filmmaker and company founder who is the executive producer of Firefly, we have worked tirelessly over several months to make this dream a reality.

What began as an attempt to understand her story has grown into a much larger undertaking: tracking down the people who knew her, finding archive scattered across different countries and collections, securing rights, and piecing together Emily's life through the traces she left behind.

The film is being produced through Aletheian Pictures, with a team of filmmakers and collaborators committed to giving Emily's story the cinematic treatment it deserves.

We've come a long way. Now we want to take it across the finish line.

Photo by Susan Itkin

Become part of Emily's story

Independent documentaries like Firefly exist because people decide that certain stories are worth preserving.

Backing this campaign isn't simply helping us finish a film.

It's helping preserve the story of an extraordinary musician, introduce her work to a new generation and ensure that Emily Remler's contribution to music is not forgotten.

Whether you have loved Emily's playing for forty years, discovered her yesterday, play guitar yourself, love jazz, or simply believe that remarkable artists deserve to have their stories remembered, we would love you to be part of this film.

What you will receive for your donation

• $50 — Supporter: Personal thank-you + campaign updates
• $100 — Friend: Name on the official Firefly supporters page + end-credit acknowledgement
• $250 — Patron: Enhanced website + end-credit acknowledgement
• $500 — Sponsor: Prominent supporter acknowledgement
• $1,000 — Benefactor: Special end-credit acknowledgement + prominent website acknowledgement
• $5,000+ — Major Supporter: Major donor acknowledgement in the film and on the official website

What your donations help us achieve

For this round of fundraising, we are seeking to raise enough to complete the final post-production edit to take this film to the big screen.

If we raise:

$20,000 — Film Completion + Essential Rights

This will include:

• Picture editing — assembling interviews, archive, B-roll, photographs, narration, etc.; rough cut → fine cut → picture lock.
• Assistant editing / media management — syncing, organising footage, proxies, conforming and managing the project.
• Colour grading — final colour correction and creating a consistent cinematic look.
• Sound post-production — dialogue editing/cleanup, noise reduction, sound design, ambience, Foley where needed, and the final sound mix/master.
• Mastering and deliverables — DCP for cinemas/festivals, ProRes masters, H.264/H.265 screeners, separate audio stems, textless elements and other distributor/festival deliverables.
• Quality control (QC) — technical checks of the final picture, audio, subtitles and masters.
• Contingency - Reserve for unexpected licensing, post-production and delivery costs required to complete the film to festival and broadcast standards.
• Audio, Video and Photo Licenses

$40,000 - Enhanced Film + Expanded Archive

Reaching $40,000 will allow us to go further — undertaking additional editorial and creative work and licensing a broader selection of Emily's music, television appearances, performances and photography.

This will enable us to tell Emily's story with a richer range of original archive material and, wherever possible, allow audiences to experience more of Emily herself on screen.

$60,000 - International Festival Campaign

Reaching $60,000 will allow us to give the completed film a substantial international launch.

In addition to the enhanced film and expanded archive package, funding will support festival submissions, publicity, PR, marketing materials, promotional assets and audience outreach throughout the film's international festival campaign.

Our aim is not simply to finish Firefly, but to bring Emily Remler's story and music to audiences around the world.

Fiscal Sponsorship

Firefly: The Emily Remler Story is fiscally sponsored by IDA (International Documentary Association), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organization.

Through our fiscal sponsorship, supporters in the United States can make charitable contributions to IDA designated in support of Firefly: The Emily Remler Story. Funds raised through IDA are used to support the production and completion of the film.

Photo by Ed Deasy

Help us finish Firefly: The Emily Remler Story — and help Emily's music find the audience it deserves.