Making film draws kids to school

By Lisa Chamoff
Staff Writer
Article Launched: 05/11/2008 01:00:00 AM EDT

Brian Pryzpek, director of photography, asks a student to move chairs as the crew films a scene at Roton Middle School in Norwalk for the 'Frederick Douglass' episode in the upcoming Connecticut Public Television project 'Young American Heroes.' (Kathleen O'Rourke/Staff photo)

NORWALK - Kids normally wouldn't jump at a chance to spend a sunny Saturday afternoon sitting in a classroom.

But that's what several students from Norwalk and around the state did yesterday at Roton Middle School. They had signed up to be extras in a film about abolitionist Frederick Douglass that is being produced by two Norwalk residents.

"It's bringing the experience of history to life," said Jacob Henny, a Roton seventh-grader who spent much of the morning and afternoon filming the movie's opening scene.

Bringing history to life for children is what the film's producers hope to do. The film is only one aspect of a larger project they designed to create new ways of teaching history and civics to middle school students.

Funded by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Young American Heroes project will include an interactive Web site and a graphic novel.

Rowayton resident Tim Smith wrote the script for the Douglass film, and he and co-executive producer and director Chris Campbell of South Norwalk teamed to produce the pilot.

Smith said he had the idea to profile young people who did extraordinary things during American history. He entered the concept in a national competition by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to find new ways of teaching American history. Out of more than 80 entries, seven were awarded grants.

Smith said his dream is to create a franchise similar to American Girl, which has books, dolls and accessories based on the lives of girls who lived at important times during American history.

"There are a lot of exciting components behind this," Smith said.

Using the project's Web site, students will be able to create their own films and their own comics using stills from the film that Smith and Campbell are producing. Original photos and documents - including letters written by Douglass, now in possession of Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History - will be scanned and be available on the site.

Chris Campbell, director and co-executive producer, talks with Mary Ann Wasil Nilan, who plays the role of teacher Jane Hoff in the episode. (Kathleen O'Rourke/Staff photo)

An important part of the project is involving teachers and students in the production. Smith and Campbell have organized curriculum focus groups with teachers, and many have been offering suggestions - even about changes in the script.

"The most important thing is every kid and every teacher has their own learning and teaching style," Campbell said. "We're trying to teach that kids are not powerless."

Next month, the project's curriculum will be piloted by three Connecticut schools, including Scofield Magnet Middle School in Stamford. The Frederick Douglass film will be shown on CPTV in September and on public television stations nationwide next February to coincide with Black History Month.

The crew shot scenes in Mystic and Essex last week, with actor Jamie Hector of HBO's "The Wire" portraying the grown-up Douglass, a former slave who fought for emancipation. Filming will take place this week in South Norwalk, which is also where the project is based, at the Palace Production Center.

Yesterday the film crew turned a Spanish classroom at Roton into a social studies classroom, papering the walls with posters of famous people in history.

The first scene had the teacher asking students to write a 300- to 400-word essay on Douglass.

If the pilot is successful, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting would fund four other programs. Smith said he has other ideas of young people to profile, including 16-year-old Sybil Ludington, often called the female Paul Revere for her ride through New York state to warn the local militia that British troops had begun burning Danbury during the American Revolution.

Tom Moore, a producer for the film and the vice president of production at the Palace Production Center, compared the educational advantages that kids of today have with the challenges that Douglass faced. Douglass learned to read, although it was illegal for people to teach him.

"There were people in the 1800s - they couldn't get educated," said Moore, a Stamford resident. "Now everyone has that privilege of being educated."

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