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Hollywood Schoolhouse Featured in Documentary Film Set to Screen at International Family Film Festival in Hollywood 2/29 & 3/1

rob@robwhitehair.com — 2008-02-21T15:47:01-07:00

Hollywood Schoolhouse Featured in Documentary Film Set to Screen at International Family Film Festival in Hollywood 2/29 & 3/1

Movie Follows World’s Largest Touring Children’s
Theatre into Five Communities, Capturing Kids Doing the Near-Impossible

(February 20, 2008) Missoula, Montana — Hollywood’s very own Hollywood Schoolhouse—and 50 of its students—is one of five North American schools/communities featured in a new documentary film titled “The Little Red Truck.”

The movie, which chronicles the world’s largest touring children’s theater and the youth it impacts, screens in Hollywood at the International Family Film Festival on Friday, February 29 at 4:15 p.m. and Saturday, March 1 at 2 p.m. Both showings will be held at Raleigh Studios, 5300 Melrose Avenue. J.K. Simmons, of Spider-man and Juno fame and a participant in the film, plans to attend the Saturday screening. The Goodyear blimp, which makes an unexpected (and rather funny) appearance in the movie, is scheduled for a fly-over post-screening. The filmmakers will be on hand for interviews. Also expected to attend are many of the Hollywood Schoolhouse students (who are featured in the film) and their families.

Hot off its premiere to a packed house—not to mention a standing ovation—last week at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, the little film that could has been described by media as exactly that and more: “a masterful, emotional tour de force...” and “....like ‘Spellbound’ meets ‘Waiting for Guffman.’”

“The Little Red Truck” records the emotional highs, lows and in-betweens of more than 250 kids in five communities when Missoula Children’s Theatre (MCT), via its signature truck, comes to their towns. Packed with pretty much everything necessary for staging a full-scale musical, the little red truck comes seeking just one thing: 50 to 60 ambitious youth, grades K through 12, to serve as cast members. The film was written, directed and produced by award-winning filmmaker Rob Whitehair and his Tree & Sky Media Arts production company.

While the truck is the film’s focal point, the real story is the children who do the improbable: learn a show’s dialogue, songs, dance moves, and staging in just six days (six days!). It’s magic and mayhem captured through the lens as the kids, under the direction of the two professional tour actor/directors who come with the truck, audition, rehearse, mess up, have the occasional meltdown, overcome personal obstacles, jump for joy, don costumes, and eventually grace the stage for a one-hour performance.

Woven throughout the one-week tour are life lessons in teamwork, trust, self-confidence, the ability to see a project through to the end, and acceptance. Bringing it all to light are the personal stories captured on high-definition video. For example:

The young girl who experiences such stage fright she considers bowing out just moments before the curtain rises.
The young boy who asserts that MCT helped him break free of gangs.
The blind girl who memorizes not only her lines, but those of her cast mates, feeding lines to one lost actor on stage with her.

Whitehair, who made a name for himself capturing wildlife on film for National Geographic, Discovery and PBS productions, says, “This film restored my faith in humanity. It forced me to look at things in a different light and ask myself, ‘At what point do we lose the ability to say anything is possible.’ These kids still believe.”

According to Whitehair’s wife and producing partner, Pam Voth, the decision to turn the company’s cameras on kids, rather than the usual wild animals, was easier than one might expect. “For us to venture beyond wildlife filmmaking, the story had to be extremely compelling and entertaining,” she says. “This project promised that and more. Over the course of six days, you see kids blossom and grow, and you get to witness personal triumphs they’ll carry into adulthood. Add in the amazing tour actor/directors who hold it all together and you have a truly powerful story, no matter what angle you approach it from.”

Whitehair and Voth spent nearly a year shadowing the tour in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, Canada; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Hollywood, California; Americus, Georgia; and Somerton, Arizona. Although these communities are geographically and demographically distinct, they share one common thread: the need for fully accessible performing arts programs.

The filmed premiered at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula, Montana, on February 16. Following its showing in Hollywood, “The Little Red Truck” plays at the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival on Saturday, March 8 at 1 p.m. at the Palm Theater.

Theater that delivers - 'Little Red Truck’ will move and enlighten audiences

rob@robwhitehair.com — 2008-02-15T18:41:00-07:00

Theater that delivers - 'Little Red Truck’ will move and enlighten audiences By JAMIE KELLY of the Missoulian

Watching the joy of accomplishment smeared all over kids’ faces is one of the magical aspects of “The Little Red Truck.”
Still photo from “The Little Red Truck.”

From the first shot of a little red truck motoring down a hot, dusty road to the last images of toothy kid grins, “The Little Red Truck” is a masterful, emotional tour de force.  This story of the Missoula Children’s Theatre, told in less than 100 minutes, will be the most talked-about film at this weekend’s Big Sky Documentary Film Festival.  Certainly among Missoulians, anyway.
And for good reason. Rob Whitehair and Pam Voth’s documentary sketches a picture of MCT’s national tours that no Missoulian has ever seen - and it’s a picture that will have you knee-deep in the magic and the mayhem of the tours, leaving you shaking your head in disbelief about the million miracles that happen around the world every year.

Whitehair and Voth take you into five North American towns over the period of a year, following the MCT’s trademark red trucks and the tour actor/directors (TADs) who set up shop, audition a cast of 60 kids and pull off a full musical production in six days.

“Six days!” screams one TAD as she stares into the camera.

That much we knew about MCT. But now, thanks to this film, we have a full appreciation of the work these miracle workers perform.

Whitehair and Voth manage, somehow, to get into these kids’ lives as if a fly on the wall, letting boys be boys and girls be girls, and little egos be little egos.

As the man said, kids say the darndest things. They also do the damnedest things, guided by these very - very, very, very - patient TADs, who, we learn, are also so very, very, very human.

They cry, scream, laugh, encourage, yell their way through each stop, doing “The Little Mermaid” in Hollywood, “The Frog Prince” in Americus, Ga., and three other productions in three other towns, including an Inuit village.

The film is ultimately about kids, but the snapshots of these TADs provide powerfully emotional portraits of their work and lives.

“I’ve had kids in casts who are crying after the show because neither mom nor dad showed up to watch the show,” says Kepler Correia. “The redemptive part of that is we get to make a difference, and we get to give these kids a chance, and ... ”

He stops, tears welling up in his eyes.

“... and if for one moment, that child feels that somebody believes in them, and somebody cares about them, then yeah, maybe they’re worth something, and they can accomplish something. That’s what it’s all about.”

The film contains interviews with actor J.K. Simmons (“Juno,” the “Spider-Man” movies), MCT executive director Michael McGill, and the man who started this whole impossible project 38 years ago - MCT founder Jim Caron.

Caron talks about what the kids learn in those six short days.

“I have to have heart with whatever I do, and I have to do whatever I do with my whole heart.”

That is a lesson, by the way, that Rob Whitehair and Pam Voth have obviously learned themselves.

A beautiful movie, timeless, one that will end up on top of your DVD collection.

Here is an NPR interview about The Little Red Truck

rob@robwhitehair.com — 2008-02-15T15:34:00-07:00

NPR Little Red Truck

World Premiere a rousing success! Photos from Premiere

rob@robwhitehair.com — 2008-02-08T16:43:00-07:00

The Little Red Truck packed the house at the Wilma Theatre during the world premiere at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival and received a rousing standing ovation.

Media reviews of the film included

" a masterful tour de force... one that will end up on the top of your DVD collection."
and
" like SPELLBOUND meets WAITING FOR GUFFMAN!

Here are some photos from the Premiere

The Little Red Truck is an official selection at the 2008 International Family Film Festival

rob@robwhitehair.com — 2008-02-07T16:30:00-07:00

The Little Red Truck has been chosen as an official selection at the 2008 San Luis Obispo International Film Festival in California

rob@robwhitehair.com — 2008-01-10T21:25:00-07:00

The Little Red Truck is just about complete!!

rob@robwhitehair.com — 2008-01-09T15:19:00-07:00

It's showtime: Filmmakers ready to release documentary on MCT's tours around the world By JAMIE KELLY of the Missoulian
Right now, “The Little Red Truck” is getting its final tune-up.  Belt yourselves in, because the documentary about Missoula Children's Theatre's epic yearly tours around the globe will debut in Missoula at next month's Big Sky Documentary Film Festival.  Filmmaker Rob Whitehair and wife Pam Voth, who have spent the last two years on the 98-minute film, are making some small, last-minute changes and expect the movie to be theater-ready any day.
“I think when people from Missoula see it,” said Voth, “they're going to be proud to be from Missoula.”

Voth and Whitehair spent the last two years recording and editing video of MCT's tours in five different American towns, documenting the heartache, hope, humor and hard work that the million-mile road shows bring to children around the world. They traveled to Andy Griffith's hometown, to an Inuit village in Alaska, to the heart of Tinsel Town, to a working-class city in Pennsylvania, and to Arizona's hot, dusty desert.

They ended up with 300 hours of high-definition video, the editing of which has occupied their lives since.

Watching with keen interest at the final edits this week was Jim Caron, founder of MCT, who has spent hours with Whitehair and Voth through the editing process.

“Every time I come here, he's added some new, wonderful thing,” said Caron at Whitehair and Voth's Rattlesnake home, a portion of which is a video editing studio for the couple's Tree and Sky Media Arts.

“The Little Red Truck” - so named because of MCT's fleet of 42 red pickups that tour the world - takes the viewer on a five-city journey to towns big and small, with children as diverse as the country itself.

It documents MCT's weeklong residencies in those towns, from the time the red trucks pull up to the final performances. Largely focused on the personalities of the children, it also features interviews with Caron, the army of tour actor-directors who make the shows happen, and even actor J.K. Simmons, who got his start with MCT in Missoula in the 1970s.

The most important quality of the documentary, said Caron, is its authenticity. Even though MCT has a financial stake in the film, it is in no way “an MCT commercial,” he said.

Caron was there to watch and suggest, but in the end it was always Whitehair and Voth's call on what survived and didn't survive the cuts.

“Rob and I have disagreed at times, but Rob gets his way, and he's almost always right,” he said. “This is a movie about what we do. And it's not perfect. Our world is a microcosm of the world. You'll see kids who are wonderful, and kids who are OK, and kids who aren't. It's critical that the film tell the truth. And I think we have an incredible outcome.”

Caron is ecstatic about the finished project. “The Little Red Truck” is, after all, a documentary about Caron's vision of art, one that he had the courage to act upon nearly 40 years ago in Missoula.

“I'm very seldom in a position to see kids say things like, ‘MCT saved me from the gangs,' ” said Caron. “We hear about that, or we'll get a letter, but to see a kid's face ... .”

It's fitting that “The Little Red Truck” will get its world premiere in Missoula. But Tree and Sky Media Arts is also shopping it to other major film festivals around the country, pursing a theatrical release and also hoping it will attract the attention of American and international broadcasters.

“We're generating awareness and creating buzz right now,” said Voth. “The theatrical run will do the same thing. The thing about this documentary is that it makes you think and feel, but it will also make you laugh.”

“Belly-laugh funny,” added Whitehair.

The DVD version of the film, complete with deleted scenes and other special features, should be available to Missoulians in the summer.

And it will be a permanent reminder to this community of what an amazing thing a little theater company can accomplish with an avuncular, community-spirit-minded artist like Caron in charge.

“I asked Jim what he wanted his legacy to be,” said Whitehair. “And he said, ‘I'll wait until the movie to find out.' ”

Earlier this week, Caron looked over scene after scene, grinning like a little kid.

“I was appalled,” he said, “that we couldn't have a 150-hour movie. Because it is all so wonderful.”

The Little Red Truck is an official selection at the 2008 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival

rob@robwhitehair.com — 2008-01-09T12:20:00-07:00