We were in the depth of January freeze, and the barren woods of North Campus were honestly the last place I wanted to be in the dark. With frozen fingers and sweaty palms, I blindly felt my way around Pierpont’s Wi-Fi and service-less basement, searching for this godforsaken “reflection room.” I finally happened upon a reclusive and bleak – but tranquil – room used as an artists’ escape.
Jenny walked in just a few minutes later, clearly much more familiar with the space. She made herself at home, and immediately colored the bare walls with an animated energy. As she detailed her passion project, it was clear her ambitions were lofty, grander than her petite stature suggested she was capable of.
I first heard about Jennifer Larson when I attended the University’s Lightworks Film Festival this past December, where her trailer won the Best Documentary award. Larson graduated with a degree in Screen Arts and Cultures shortly after the premiere, and now devotes all her time to expanding her documentary trailer into a formidable full-length project.
Though film is her principal medium, Larson also has extensive photography and graphic design portfolios called “The Larson Lens.” She has worked on dramatic and comedic shorts before, but she considers documentary her forte – pieces that intertwine shots of people in their fields with interview clips from community members. By combining action scenes with poignant commentary, Larson aims to bring awareness to inspiring, real-life stories she believes are worth sharing.
Growing up in Royal Oak, Larson always had an eclectic array of interests, but she was certain she would make a living out from her creativity. Though she never took any art classes beyond middle school mandates, she rooted herself in the University’s School of Art and Design. It was at her Sophomore Review at the end of her second year, that professors saw a different spark in her – a spark they declared bluntly as, “You belong in the film school.”
On a shaky whim, she transferred into LSA’s Screen Arts and Cultures program, even though she was taking a risk so late into her college career. Over time, she smoothly transitioned from her art background to production design in film. Soon, she made a larger discovery in her new field.
“I very much enjoy doing the artistic side of things, but my passion is still with documentaries … I’m very committed to sharing stories and messages, especially ones that aren’t given enough attention by the media,” Larson said.
Appropriately, her current passion project is to film the progress of the Cooley Reuse Project in Detroit – an endeavor set to span the course of the next five years.
Nicole Pitts, the project’s creator, stumbled upon Cooley High School – a magnificent building of Spanish-Renaissance exterior and terribly dilapidated interior – accidentally. In 2010, the school was unfortunately closed due to lack of sufficient enrollment and budget. It is now Pitts’ mission to raise the funding to purchase the property – then fully revive and remodel it as a community center, which will include job training services, gym facilities, mixed-income residential housing and other resources for the Detroit community.
CRP is primarily Nicole Pitts’s project, but it is Larson’s job is to follow and document the process and progress. Her connection with Pitts traces back to her early adolescence, as Larson’s mother and Pitts are colleagues at Oakland Community College. Larson and Pitts have known each other for about 10 years, and just last year, Larson latched her own project onto Pitts’s.
As Larson puts it, “(the CRP is) going to help rebuild the community, bring more power to it, give more opportunities to people in that area who don’t feel like they have anyone to reach out to. They don’t know where to go to get on their feet – to be more successful.”
As a filmmaker who cares deeply about Detroit, Larson knows there is a whole city of unique options she can highlight on film. However, what initially attracted her to CRP was not only Nicole Pitts’s charisma, but a proud sense of duty.
Larson explained, “I feel like (Detroit’s) my home. It’s an underdog city that is portrayed in grossly a negative light … The particular stories I want to tell are the ones that I think will have a positive influence … Nicole Pitts and her Cooley Reuse Project are definitely something that should be known at least by the people of the Detroit and Michigan area.”
It’s this dedication to her passion and her personal project that is tremendously inspiring. Larson plans on releasing the documentary in three separate 30-minute segments: the pre-development, the purchase of the property and finally the completion’s effect on community. As advised by one of her SAC professors, she intends to package her completed film on Seed and Spark, an online forum for independent filmmakers to share their passion projects.
Larson has since shifted to dual as an integral CRP member, as well. She has thus far used her personal funds and equipment to fuel her own project – without even a Kickstarter campaign to buttress her financially. The scope of the project is a hefty one – one most fresh post-grads and budding filmmakers would not immediately commit to.
“(My film) shows the people in Detroit … coming together to make create something better for themselves, to benefit further generations – and to help bring back the phoenix rising from the ashes,” she says.
Larson’s upcoming mission is a trailer event to bring a swarm of support out to volunteer on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day this year, where she and Pitts hope to clean the outside of Cooley High School to make it safer even before it opens to the public. Slowly but surely, she will aid in making the revival of Cooley High and the completion on her film both a reality.
“Apathy is a huge problem in our youth and in our society today,” she said. “One of my goals as a filmmaker is to make my spectators active… I’m hoping that something they take away will be a spark … something that drives them to … make a change, to be more involved in their community.”
Even in her language, it is clear artistic thought runs through her every nerve – and empathy is a quality so genuine to her character. Larson holds up her coffee cup to help visually demonstrate a metaphor.
“Say my coffee cup is a soda can … and you try to open it and the tab pops off … Something is only as strong as its weakest point,” she explained. “The weakest point would be Detroit and this situation in America, and … it’s important for – even if you’re in California or New Mexico or Arizona or wherever – you should care about Detroit.”