More than 70 students and advisor/ director of the Spanish Club “Spangles” worked for seven months from October to May, 2002 on the adaptation of the passionate play Bodas de Sangre (Blood Wedding) by Federico García Lorca. They created the first DVD film made by students at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School. The 50 minute film, which is in Spanish with English subtitles, made a debut performance at the Performing Arts Center on May 16thand will be aired on the local cable channel. The project is a blend of academics through literature, world language acquisition and cultural awareness, technology, and the arts; extra and intra-curricular activities; school and community. It challenged students as writers (to adapt the text for film script and to make it more contemporary), camera people, director of photography, actors, story board creator, editors, musicians (making an original sound track), choreographers, dancers, location scouts, costume, set and make-up designers, assistant director, subtitle translators, continuity photographer, web page designer, and creator of trailer, program designer and publicity assistants. Student participants ranged from first year to fourth year AP (Advanced Placement) Spanish students from many different classes because the movie was initiated as a product of an extracurricular group, not from a contained classroom activity. In addition to cooperation from the World Language Department (many students who were most involved got extra credit or even alternative Mid Term assessment from their Spanish classes), the Technology Department, Music, Art and Drama Departments and the Movie Club were instrumental for training and use of resources. Members of the community too were involved by lending enthusiasm and assistance with pronunciation and delivery of lines (native Spanish speakers from Noche de Hablar Español volunteered to help along with our exchange student from Argentina), opening their homes for on location filming, and supplying the majority of the wardrobe from the local Vineyard Haven Thrift Store! Because of the cooperative efforts, school support, and hundreds of hours of volunteer labor from the students, the advisor and others, the budget for this film was incredibly low. DVD or VHS copies of the movie with original sound track are available for purchase. All proceeds will be donated to the Child Labor Awareness Project sister school in Mexico via Casa Alianza.
Contact: Lynn Ditchfield, director/ producer/ advisor at lditchfield@fc.mv.k12.ma.us.