Two departments within the School of communications are collaborating on a documentary, Hoxie: The First Stand. Directed and produced by Communications Professor David Appleby, the documentary is about Hoxie, Arkansas' first attempts at school integration in the early 1950s.
Appleby's credits also include At the River I Stand, a PBS documentary about the 1968 Sanitation Strike and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. That film received the 1994 Erik Barnouw Award from the Organization of American Historians and was nominated for an Emmy and an NAACP Image Award.
The music supervisor for this new project is David Shotsberger, a doctoral candidate in composition at the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music, who will compose original music for the documentary.
"A month ago, my colleagues and professors recommended me to David Appleby, who was looking for a music supervisor for his documentary," said Shotsberger.
Both Appleby and Shotsberger have recently participated in a spotting session, where they viewed a rough-cut of the documentary and discussed possible musical ideas and directions for it.
"David (Appleby) has indicated what style of music he wants and he now trusts in me to produce this music," Shotsberger said. "I'm creating a score that draws from the story."
Shotsberger is aiming for a simple, earthy, blue-grass music, scored sparingly for single instruments. "The score is strongly influenced by composers and musicians such as Steven Reich, Ennio Morricone and Pete Anderson," he said. "Diversity is the cornerstone of compositional style."
This is David's first film project and he looks forward to many more.
"I love this sort of work and enjoy the collaboration," he said.
Hoxie: The First Stand will be completed in early Spring 2001 and will air on PBS.
