The Dexter Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Filmmaker debuts 'powerful' documentary at McKune
By Terry Jacoby, Heritage Newspapers
PUBLISHED: November 13, 2008
Gian Carlo Menotti, a Pulitzer Prize winning composer, once said, "Any subject is good for opera if the composer feels it so intently he must sing it out."
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Tom McPhee felt the emotion of his project so "intently" that including the word opera in the title was in perfect harmony with the story he was trying to tell. But in truth, the story was being told for him - and he would be the first to admit that he was just lucky enough to be there to document it.
Unlike a traditional opera, McPhee tells his story using images and words. Some disturbing. Some gut-wrenching. Some touching. All memorable. It's a story he felt compelled to tell after experiencing it while it was happening all around him. How lucky are we that a filmmaker and storyteller such as McPhee was living in this moment, allowing him to share with the rest of us what he was seeing through his unique perspective.
And how lucky is Chelsea that the filmmaker selected McKune Memorial Library to premiere his already award-winning documentary, "An American Opera." The film, which will be shown at 7 p.m. on Nov. 19 in the McKune Room, depicts the efforts of thousands of volunteers and other groups who attempted to save the lives of animals left behind following the destruction of Hurricane Katrina.
McPhee wanted to capture the wide range of emotion that volunteers were experiencing while dealing with such an enormous and daunting task. The audience, in turn, will share these feelings while also asking questions such as how and why.
McPhee, who moved to Chelsea last year, believes he has a different calling than working in corporate America. He's always believed that calling started and ended behind a camera, telling a story through his vision. At age 44, he's already lived a pretty diverse life, even spending time in the market place, both in computer hardware and automobiles.
"An American Opera" wasn't a calling. It was more or less destiny. The stars were aligned, at the right place and at the right time. Whether that was coincidence, well, that's for someone else to decide.
"I had just sold my business and divested myself of all of my responsibilities, so there I was with a unique opportunity to involve myself in something that matters," says McPhee. "I was watching the news coverage (of Hurricane Katrina) a little bit as it came in. I paid a little bit of attention to what was going on. And then it was impossible not to pay attention to what was going on. On the morning of Sunday, Sept. 4, I knew then I had to go down there.
"I went down with no expectations. But I was compelled to go down. I spent the entire day packing provisions like tools, supplies, food and water. My car was packed, but I also brought my cameras."
Those cameras would end up having a far more reaching and lasting impact than any of the supplies he took with him.
On the way down McPhee met a generous woman online who invited him to stay at their home in Gonzales, La., located between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The rest of his story actually ends up being the story told through the camera in "An American Opera."
"Mrs. Gomez worked at the YMCA that was at the Lamar Dixon Expo Center in Gonzales that was doing a lot of staging," he says. "So she suggested we go down there first so they could point us in the direction where people could use our help. So we went there early in the morning. And there was all kinds of activity."
The facility, similar to the Michigan State Fairgrounds, was being used as a refugee center for about 2,200 people that had been there for about a week.
"There were five or six organized church groups and the Red Cross," McPhee says. "For the first few hours we thought that there had to be something more because they didn't seem to need us here. We were getting ready to leave when we heard these noises from the back of the facility.
"We drove to the back where there were all these barns and they were filled with animals. Thousands of animals were being dropped off. The organizations that were evacuating people out had a mandate to separate people from animals."
It didn't take McPhee long, maybe 30 seconds, to see what a huge problem this was. He knew that it was going to get worse before it got better. And he also knew that this was where he was going to stay. This was his destiny.
"I gave all of my provisions away and we had a place to stay so I decided to just go and see what was going on," he said. "And as I was opening my car door to get out a woman came by asking if anyone had a digital camera. So for the next four days I started taking picture after picture. They kept bringing in more and more animals and I kept taking picture after picture of each one of them."
While taking photos of lost pets, mostly dogs and many injured or sick, McPhee couldn't help but see the bigger picture. The filmmaker in him was starting to surface.
"Everything just slowed down for me and I was able to get a perspective that there was some really interesting psychology going on," he says. "The whole event was a close encounter event. The machine that drove people to go down because of a close encounter event. The people there were driven to be there.
"I was getting something very fresh. I recognized the initial big bang that the big part of this story was happening right now."
McPhee, who ended up spending 16 days down there during his first visit, contacted several large Web sites that deal with pet adoptions. They just didn't understand what he they were dealing with at the Lamar Dixon Expo Center.
"They wanted me to load the pictures up using their format, and they just didn't get it," McPhee says. "I tried to explain that I took 1,100 images that day and there was no way I could do what they were asking."
McPhee was taking a picture of the log ticket that they were brought in with and a photo of the animal. He was doing that over a thousand times a day for four days. He then put down his still cameras and picked up his video camera.
"An American Opera" begins with the perfect overture. A volunteer looks directly into the camera and without hesitation, says, "I want to translate this experience that I've had and give it to you so you can live vicariously so you can better understand what the story is and if it's painful for me, I really hope it's painful for you."
Parts of "An American Opera" are painful. Seeing a family pet abandoned, scared, stranded on roof tops, locked in cages and laying dead on the kitchen floor show the harshness and the brutality and the realism of what these volunteers experienced. But the flip side of the film shows people such as Jane Garrison who left her comfortable home in Mt. Pleasant, S.C. to not only help, but take charge and lead.
"I wanted us to rescue as many animals as possible and that should have been the goal of everyone," Garrison says near the beginning of the film. By the end of the film you will understand what she's talking about.
It shows America at its worst. And it shows America at its best.
"It's been three years to finish this because I made it a point to live this material," McPhee says. "My feeling was that everyone was focusing on facts and raw information in these reports that were being shown on TV and the aspect was fairly thin compared to what was really going on.
"I saw an opportunity to get into why did this happen and how much of it was us and what could we do. And I didn't want it to be a talking documentary. This wasn't about facts and figures. It needed to be about emotions. I wanted to create something where you got all of the information, but you also had the emotional connection to what was taking place. It was what needed to happen to show the connection to what these people were going through."
Born and raised in Dearborn, McPhee is what he calls a homer. He never strays too far from Southeastern Michigan and is enjoying his new home in Chelsea. He has been an innovator in the film, event, multimedia and television industries for more than 15 years. McPhee created and managed Flixtour, the premier college film tour, started "Real Detroit Weekly - The Music Show" and was executive director of the 1998 Detroit and Windsor International Festival of Film.
McKune Director Joan Elmouchi says that hosting a world premiere movie of this importance and quality is another example of why this library was named "The Best Small Library in America" by The Library Journal and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
"The Chelsea District Library is thrilled to have the opportunity to hold the first public premiere of this award-winning documentary," Elmouchi said. "We're looking forward to a very special evening.
"The staff works hard to provide the community with not only literary events and programs, but major series of live concerts, performing arts productions and workshops by partnering with the Purple Rose Theatre Company, and supporting events for the public schools and community organizations."
Sharon Pignanelli, president of the Friends group, agrees that this movie adds to the uniqueness of events McKune offers to the community.
"The Friends of the Library are pleased that their year-round fundraising efforts will help to financially provide for the public premiere of such an important filmmaking endeavor," she says. "We are proud to support the excellent programming of the Best Small Library in America 2008."
The Friends will host a VIP event to meet the filmmaker and producer at 6:30 p.m. that evening.
Karen Persello, head of youth and teen services, will oversee this event for the library.
"I am very thrilled that the Chelsea District Library is hosting the first public premiere of 'An American Opera,'" she said. "This movie is about a little-known part of the aftermath of Katrina and is therefore an important film that ultimately gives us hope."
Persello stresses that this is not a film appropriate for young viewers. The library is recommending the movie for ages 14 and up.
"An American Opera" is marketed as "The Greatest Pet Rescue Ever" and is certainly one of great importance on many levels.
"It's the story of so many people working upstream against incredible odds," McPhee says. "It's really an incredible story on how we deal with crisis and how just one person can make an enormous difference."
Space will be limited for this free event. Reservations may be made by calling 734-475-8732 (ext. 216) or via email to a href="mailto:marketing@chelseadistrictlibrary.org">marketing@chelseadistrictlibrary.org. For more information on the film, log onto www.anamericanopera.com.
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