Block 2-Life Lessons

About This Program

This program presents two documentaries based in Michigan, a short and a feature.

The Legacy of Roethke

Director: Jeff Vande Zande

Documentary Short, USA, 2019, 19 min, Color

Poet Tess Gallagher was in Theodore Roethke's last poetry writing class before he died in the summer of 1963. In this documentary Gallagher shares her recollections of Roethke as a teacher, while offering a virtual tour of Roethke's boyhood home, now maintained as a museum in Saginaw, MI.

Great Lakes Connection: The film's subject is Theodore Roethke, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet from Saginaw, Michigan.

The Stories They Tell

Director: Danny Kim

Documentary Feature, USA, 2015, 75 min, Color

For over 15 years, Professor Siu-Lan Tan has partnered every Kalamazoo College student in her Developmental Psychology class with a child at Woodward Elementary School to create a children's book together. This Co-Authorship Project has expanded education beyond the four walls of the classroom - giving psychology students rich insights into the development of young children, who in turn learn about literacy, social interaction and perhaps even catch a glimpse of their potential futures.

The Stories They Tell will take you on a journey of this innovative partnership, as students both young and old connect through this creative collaboration and learn more about each other and themselves in the process.

Great Lakes connection:

The film documents a project involving college and elementary school students from Kalamazoo, Michigan. Also, the crew is from Michigan.

Cast & Crew:

Director: Danny Kim
Writer: Danny Kim
Producer: Danny Kim

Screenings/Awards:

Lake Erie Arts & Film Festival (Sandusky, OH, United States), September 17, 2015, World Premiere

Reading FilmFEST (Reading, PA, United States), November 13, 2015, Pennsylvania Premiere

East Lansing Film Festival (East Lansing, MI, United States), November 15, 2015, Michigan Premiere

Best Feature Film at North by Midwest Micro-Budget Film Festival (Kalamazoo, MI, United States), May 21, 2016

Royal Starr Film Festival, (Royal Oak, MI, United States), October 13, 2016

Made-in-Michigan Film Festival (Frankenmuth, MI, United States), February 3, 2017

More Info:

TRAILER   TWITTER