Joan Cochran Sommers Documentary
- atgaccordionistste
- 7 days ago
- 2 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
Mary Ann Covone
Production of the long-awaited documentary telling the story of our own Joan Cochran Sommers has begun. After a period of research and interviews, we found the right creative team to bring this dream to life. We selected FMK Agency, right in Joan’s hometown, Kansas City, to produce this video. After Joan and I met with them, their passion for her story and their demonstrated ability in video production for Ensemble Iberica, a Kansas City Concert Production and Touring Company led by Beau Bledsoe, one of our featured artists at our 2024 ATG Festival in Kansas City, sealed the deal. Once we started working with the creative team, we learned that most of them are also musicians. That explained a lot. It is just the right mix!
Filming began this week at the UMKC Performing Arts Center during a rehearsal of the UMKC Community Accordion Ensemble. Creative artist and camera man, Alex Buettner, did a wonderful job capturing the energy of the rehearsal with some still shots and live video. Of course, Professor Sommers was at her best, and her energy and passion set the tone for the inspirational rehearsal that took place. Alex will film a rehearsal again next week, and Brooke Knoll, project manager for FMK and interviewer, will spend a couple of days interviewing Joan in her home. Brooke will also interview some of Joan’s family and UMKC Ensemble members. After a week of interviewing and filming rehearsals, the creative team will take a couple of weeks to create a first run of part of the documentary.
Prior to filming, the FMK team has been doing a lot of background work learning about Joan and her career. ATG has supplied plenty of videos and other materials to help them learn about Joan’s work for and impact upon ATG. Joan Grauman Morse did some digging and provided several historical photos, and Joan Sommers has many boxes of photos, programs, awards, and other memorabilia for the team to review. One of the photos in Joan’s collection that I find most interesting is a photo of Joan and her group on stage with Harry Truman and Eleanor Roosevelt! I am certain you will hear that story in the documentary.
Filming and interviews will resume in mid-March. It is our goal to premier the documentary at our festival in July in Salt Lake City. We are grateful for the generosity of our ATG membership and friends who have helped this dream become a reality. The donations exceeded all expectations! Thank you to every one of you that donated. You made a difference!
Here are some photos of what has been happening:
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