Goodbye American Dreams

This may be my last chance to share my involvement in a wonderful course at Colby College. For the past four years I have had the absolute pleasure of assisting Professor Phyllis Mannocchi with a course called American Dreams. It is the only course of it's kind on the Colby campus; the students study documentary films throughout the semester and then, after a crash course in production and Final Cut Pro editing from me, they embark on creation of their own short documentaries. 

Since I am their tech guru and troubleshooter, especially during the eighty-plus hour editing sessions, I get the joy of watching the creative process from the outside for a change and it is a blast! What these young people create, with just the bare essentials, is for me a source of joy and amazement. Sadly, this will be the last year Professor Mannocchi teaches the American Dreams class, which means that it is my last year too...(sigh) Every time she reminds me that this is our "swan song" I feel a serious pang of loss.

In a few weeks from now, this year's  five films will premiere for the last time on Colby's campus. I wanted to take a moment to celebrate some of the student films that have come out of this process and to thank Professor Mannocchi and all the students past and present that have helped rekindle the creative spark year after year. Thank you!

From last year's class came the following; Part I of a film about a working bluegrass band here in Maine (Part II can be found here) ...just one of many wonderful short films that have come out of the American Dreams class.  This film was created by Kristen Barnico, Paige Clunie, Kara Dalton, Jess Egan, and Brett Wagenheim: