March/April 2011

Spring is upon us in Boston, though one crew dispatched this month had a final heavy dose of winter. Susan and Jesse headed up to Igloolik, Nunavut (that's Arctic Canada, for one more level of orientation) to spend a week with Artcirq on their home tundra. The trip coincided with a visit to Igloolik from Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, that created an emotional backdrop for a people struggling with a difficult history of oppression. Artcirq, and the young adults that make up the circus, shown through as a positive force in a very interesting community.

Meanwhile, Bestor, Matt and Mike headed off on a European cyberwar tour that took them from Estonia, where they spoke with the president of that country, to Germany, to discuss the virus Stuxnet with the man who decoded it, to Russia where they spent time with computer security superpower Kaspersky. The film is in full editorial now, and we've got a team of animators working with Eric to develop its graphic look.

Filming for the Smithsonian Art Museum's exhibit about decorative arts from the White House continued, with two more interviews with political celebrities, first daughter Susan Ford Bales, and first lady Laura Bush. Both shared a wealth of interesting stories from the White House. Mrs. Bales recalled hosting her high school prom in the East Room (every single member of her senior class attended, even though the Beach Boys declined a request to provide the night's entertainment), and Mrs. Bush recalled how it was her mother-in-law that insisted they install fiber optic lighting for the bed during her renovation of the Lincoln Bedroom, because it was too dark to read.

More interviews were held in Boston and Cleveland for the Mob Museum, which is in full editorial and coming along nicely. We had a shoot out in Concord during the annual reenactment of the battle at the Old North Bridge for a film that will be at the Minute Man National Historic Park. Beat poetry scripting is underway for the Ford Theatre museum, our films for Mount Greylock and the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center are nearing completion, and, as always, there are plenty of other balls in the air.