MORROW — The Clayton State-produced collaborative opera film “The Prairie Dog That Met the President” recently won “Best Musical Feature” at the San Diego International Kids’ Film Festival.
The film has now been screened at four film festivals and also won an award for merit from the Nature Without Borders International Film Festival.
The film was described as “a fun film and great way to introduce opera to young audiences,” in one five-star review at the KIDS FIRST! Film festival in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
“The project involved music, film, and theatre faculty and students,” said Jonathan Harris, the interim chair for the Dept. of Film, Communication, and Performing Arts. “(It) is the ultimate example of producing innovative and collaborative art during the pandemic.”
Director of Opera and Vocal Studies Kurt-Alexander Zeller directed the musical performances, Associate Professor of Theatre Design Derrick Vanmeter in Theatre designed the animal costumes in the film, and faculty member Shawn Bulloch and his students were responsible for the cinematography.
Harris and his Visual Effects and Advanced Editing workshop students also edited and did the visual effects work for the project.
As for the film’s plot, Harris described it as an “interactive and engaging opera for young audiences” and is a “fantasy based on some true events of the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-1806.”
“A shy prairie dog and a gregarious magpie journey with members of the expedition from the Great Plains back to Washington D.C. via Louisiana and the Florida Keys,” Harris said. “Along the way, both learn to appreciate the diversity of life they encounter and the value of friendship.”
Zeller said the film’s creation resulted from the challenges created during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021.
He also said that opera production had…
Read the full article here
