Kickstarter

Exactly 10 years after its premiere debut, the live ORCHESTRA de LUNE reunites to accompany the moving picture CLAIRE for a special music and film presentation in Atlanta, Georgia on November 3, 2011.

Not only is this screening a celebration for cast, musicians, and pioneer supporters of the project, but it offers an opportunity for a (practically) new generation to discover this magical organic combination of film and music.

Atlanta filmmaker Milford Thomas's CLAIRE is a 53-minute black and white silent film shot on an antique hand-crank 35mm camera.  CLAIRE tells the story of an elderly male couple in the rural 1920s South (Jim Ferguson and Mish P. DeLight) who find an enchanting girl from the moon (Toniet Gallego) and adopt her as their own. The flickering fairytale deals with family, love, and gifts in the form of certain individuals in our lives.

The film toured internationally, opening festivals in Milan, Brussels, Montreal and the U.S., always accompanied by the live 11-piece "Orchestra de Lune" performing an original score under the baton of composer/conductor Anne Richardson.

The purpose of our Kickstarter campaign is to secure the venue rental fee for the November 3 anniversary performance (due now, before ticket sales can begin). This event will only be possible if we meet our goal.

Your support will also enable composer Richardson to translate the score into a string quartet arrangement for presentations beginning in 2012.  The optional economical quartet version (versus the full 11-piece orchestra) will MAKE THE CLAIRE EXPERIENCE MUCH MORE ACCESSIBLE TO FUTURE AUDIENCES, i.e. university schools of music, viable fundraising events, and film festivals. An added bonus is the fact Richardson will not have to be present to conduct the quartet musicians.

Filmmaker Thomas will personally make the CLAIRE art pieces as tokens of gratitude for different levels of support. "High Art," no, but "Heartfelt Art," yes. As we’ve been saying for over a decade now, “Thank You For Supporting Claire!”