ALTON – If you could compose the soundtrack of your life, what would it sound like? Jean King found out after researching her family history and scoring the stories. Not content to stop with music, she collaborated with a cousin to bring the songs to life. The result is a film co-produced with Ann Morrissey Davidson.
“Family Album,” an 80-minute feature film, and “Trilogy,” a 15-minute short, will have their premier showing at 7:00 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 25, at Jacoby Arts Center, 627 E. Broadway, Alton IL. The event is free but donations to the filmmakers and Jacoby Arts Center are welcome.
King composed the music for both films and wrote the lyrics for “Family Album;” Davidson was the cinematographer. Both films are a community effort by vocalists, dancers, and actors and were filmed on location in the greater Alton area.
“Family Album” tells the story of King’s family in four parts: Our Ancestors, Our Immediate Family, Our Generation and Our Next Generation. “Trilogy” is music inspired by three works of art: sculptures “The Whistler” and “The Bather” and “Thicket No. 43,” an oil and acrylic painting by Jeffrey Vaughn. King and Davidson will provide a brief introduction before each film and take questions at the end.
King grew up on Prospect Street, in the Christian Hill neighborhood in Alton. Like many young people, she grew up and moved away but returned home in 2000. At the time, she’d been living in Massachusetts and had begun researching her family history.
“I wrote a 260-page manuscript on my family history and then the music just started coming to me,” she says. “I really got to know my family well. Some of the lyrics are based on letters from my grandfather and uncle and the rest are based on my manuscript,” she says. The music score is comprised of 18 songs and variations and the genre ranges from pop to neo-classical.
King is no stranger to composing; she’s produced four earlier CDs, but she knew she didn’t want to produce Family Album as a CD only; the memories of her childhood were too powerful to keep hidden. So the music sat on her computer for nearly ten years. Then one day, Davidson came to visit and asked what projects King had been working on.
“I told her about the music and that I was looking for something different,” says King.
Like many creative collaborations, the spark of the idea sometimes gets forgotten over time when like minds are in sync.
“I’d been taking a lot of photographs but somehow videography came up,” says Davidson. She taught art history at Lewis and Clark Community College for eight years and now teaches part time.
“I took an Intro to Videography class at LC. We were required to make a three-minute music video as our final project so I used Jean’s song, “Prospect Street.””
The video included antique cars and extras in period costume as dancer Andrew Lambert-Cole, a Performing Arts student at Principia College, danced among them.
The women are grateful for the many dancers, actors and vocalists who volunteered their talents to help create the video. Principia College professor Hilary Harper-Wilcoxen was the choreographer for Family Album, along with solo vocalists Alison Neace, Doug Burns, and Ron Abraham. Creative Dance Studio instructor Rachel Brady and Alton dancer Bruce Wayne were the choreographers for Trilogy, an instrumental.
King and Davidson say they work well together. They have the same drive for perfectionism and a tenacity to see the project through.
“Ann’s just terrific to work with,” says King. “She’d listen to the music and then we’d go out on location. She’s very creative and pays attention to detail.”
“Jean’s music is extremely beautiful. Her keyboard sounds like a full orchestra,” says Davidson.
The two have another project in the works, an e.e. cummings poem that King has set to music.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Visitors may view the exhibitions “Residual Impact” and “Documents of the Time,” contemporary artworks reflecting our interdependence with nature and humans’ imprint on society. Seating is open and a cash bar is available. DVDs of the evening’s films will be available for purchase for $10.
About the Jacoby Arts Center
The mission of the Jacoby Arts Center is to nurture and promote the practice and appreciation of the arts through education, exhibits, cultural programs and community outreach initiatives. Jacoby Arts Center is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. The Jacoby Arts Center is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.
Jacoby Arts Center, 627 E. Broadway, Alton, IL 62002 / 618-462-5222 / jacobyartscenter@gmail.com
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