We have conducted interviews with the current generation operating the camp, Pearl's daughters, Janice and Nora, and Sulie's daughter, Judy. Harand remains a family owned and operated business. We have also shot various staffers that have been there from the beginning (some as long as 47 years).
We have visited Elkhart Lake, the sight where Harand camp stood for 35 of its 50 years and see some of the places that are seminal to everyone's memories of camp.
We have shot the last season of Harand Camp at its previous location at Wayland Academy in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin and are currently shooting at Catrhage College, the current location of the camp; the preparations by the staff; the campers arrival and orientation; the classes; the activities; the pageant (a spectacular show that involves the entire camp and hundreds of songs) at the end of 3 weeks and the marathon musical-comedy presentation at the end of the 6 weeks.
Through this footage we will see Sulie in action as well as each of the daughters, teachers and counselors at work.
We will watch the "every child is a star" method of casting involving a rotation of multiple children playing the same role in the same play; each getting their own scene and a song.
And finally, and most importantly, we will witness the magical transformation of the children from the beginning of the session through the end of camp.
"Sulie and Pearl made a tremendous contribution to arts education. The Harands approach should be reinvented today in the public schools. Their model is an extraordinary model for teaching" |
Lois Weisberg, Commissioner,
Chicago Department of Cultural affairs. |
There are also 50 years of archival visual material of Harand Camp: home movies, videotapes and photographs of activities and campers throughout the years. This rich material will support the many interwoven interview stories that we will collect from each generation of Harand Campers; from the 1950's through 2004.
Harand Camp leaves a lasting impression on all that have attended it. We will capture some of those lasting impressions from some of the famous alumni as well as some of the not so famous alums. We will talk with teachers, psychologists, social workers, philosophers, doctors, writers, politicians; a host of "experts" in their fields that will help the audience understand the significance of what the Harand's created.
Some of the famous alumni that have already been interviewed on film are who will appear in the film may include: Bruce Block (Producer of "Something's Got to Give"), Andrew Davis, (Director of "The Fugitive") and Tony-Award winner Todd London, (Artistic Director of The New Dramatists Theater in New York).
There is another crucial element in telling this story: the music.
Throughout the 50 years, all Harand campers everywhere know the words and music as well as the choreography for hundreds of songs. Music is one of the main things that bind all Harand campers together over the generations and is very important telling the story of this place.
It is our hope to inter-cut the children's musical and dramatic performance footage with the interviews, creating an almost musical-theater version of a documentary film.
The future is uncertain for the survival of the camp. The family continues their commitment to keeping camp going. How many more transitions can they manage and still keep the dream and the spirit alive?
Sulie and Pearl probably didn't know when they started out 50 years ago, what effect they would have on so many lives. They are the unsung heroes of generations of children past and present. For many, Harand camp has literally been a life-saver, a place where fragile egos found boosting, a place to escape from domestic dysfunction or abuse, a place to discover an authentic "self", a place to make life-long friends.
I hope that future generations will be able to experience the Harand magic, and like generations before them will go out into the real world and make a difference. |
