Movie and music star Jennifer Lopez and the cast and crew of The Mother were not the only people making a film in Smithers last week.
The East of the Sun, West of the Moon Outreach Project is a multimedia film project of the Vancouver International Children’s Festival (VICF) that involved a collaboration between professional Lower Mainland filmmakers and students from Muheim Elementary School and Smithers Secondary School.
Between September and November, an artistic team of artists from the Lower Mainland and Smithers worked with students to devise a script and develop all the other creative elements to produce an original multimedia piece based on the Norwegian fairy tale “East of the Sun, West of the Moon.”
The original story is a tale of a peasant girl sold to a prince who takes the form of a bear. The current collaboration will reflect the four elements of earth, water, air and fire, a project description from the VICF stated.
Over the past week, a crew from Vancouver led by creative director/writer (Susan Bertoia) worked in various locations around Muheim Elementary including the Old Church, as well as at Smithers Secondary, filming the students involved.
“This is an amazing opportunity for our Muheim students,” said Liliana Pesce, Muheim Grade 4/5 teacher. “The process has been a rich learning experience and the finished product will be super exciting to see.”
The crew working directly with students last week included Bertoia, filmmaker Shiun Okada and local singer/songwriter Simbiyez (Simba) Wilson.
Other collaborators from Smithers include sound artist Brennan McKinnon, SSS drama teacher Heather Lytle and Pesce.
The Vancouver team also includes sound designer Ruby Sidhu, production designer Marcus Valliant, dramaturge Jimmy Tait, film editor Cande Andrade, production manager Brittany Cope and marketer Karthik Kadam.
The finished product will premiere in Smithers in March 2022 and be showcased at the VICF in May/June.
editor@interior-news.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter