Production Details
Production Team
Length: 90 minutes
Format: Super 16mm and High-Definition Video, 16x9 format.
Elements: Interviews, archival footage, evocative re-creation footage, rich music track
Committed Broadcast: WNET American Masters Series
Creative Elements
With the assistance of a distinguished board of humanities scholars, this documentary will blend historical research, archival photography and motion picture film, audio recordings and an original sound track.
This film allows Lange’s powerful and palpable style to reveal itself through her writing and intimate first-person recollections from their family, friends and assistants, giving the film perspective and dimension. Dramatized and evocative imagery will be juxtaposed with archival footage of the times and newly restored 16mm footage of Lange herself to move the story forward. Combining these unique materials with her epic photographs, Grab a Hunk of Lightning will powerfully invite viewers to Lange’s singular desire: To see ‘things as they are.’
In addition to the legacy of her photographs, Dorothea Lange left behind many personal hand-written journals; diaries of her daily work in the field, darkroom notes, manuscripts, letters and detailed photographic captions.
Style and Format
Grab a Hunk of Lightning will be 90 minutes in length, shot in Super 16mm and high-definition video to accurately reproduce Dorothea Lange’s photographs to the highest level of quality. High-definition video ensures a technically superior product for the current proposed production and for any future use. The film is scheduled to be broadcast on the American Masters series on PBS.
A richly layered score will give the film’s images additional dimension, and will incorporate both contemporary American and world music to reflect Lange’s international travel.
Outreach for the Film
The Katahdin Foundation is planning extensive outreach efforts to insure that the film can extend the opportunity for ongoing positive social change: Educational efforts targeting middle and high schools will include partner relationships with children's museums, photography museums, schools and centers for youth. It is the intension of the filmmakers to not only have an impact with the film for the viewer, but to create conduits of learning and provide opportunities for children to experience their surroundings through the lens of a camera. By referencing Lange’s photographic work, the educational component will integrate both the technical and interpretive aspects of photography and teach students to appreciate, interpret, analyze and create visual works that have direct meaning in their own lives.
Programs are being developed to include photographic technique with photojournalistic approaches and supportive educational materials to share photography’s rich documentarian, social and technical history. Through these integrated outreach programs, students will be able to not only intellectually understand but also personally experience the relationship between the history of Lange's photography, ongoing social change, and perhaps most importantly, support young people in 'finding a voice' to personally define and express their own view of the world.
Ancillary Materials
The filmmakers are dedicated to creating ancillary materials that extend the life of its films, which ensures that the Dorothea Lange project will have a life well beyond its national PBS broadcast. Grab a Hunk of Lightning offers extensive opportunities for outreach and education in diverse communities. To reach these audiences, we are planning to integrate ancillary materials with activities and initiatives, expanding the reach and affect of the film, which will be triggered by the national broadcast.