When Chicago's venerable Poetry Foundation commissioned Todd to produce six short films based on poems by their roster of Children's Poet Laureates, he recruited Guest Producer Lisa Effress and partnered with the USC Film School to overdeliver. The resulting ten films are by turns delightful, scary, dark, thoughtful, and educational, based on poems by Naomi Shihab Nye, Tess Gallagher, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Dorothea Lasky, Jamaal May, Bruce Lansky, Eloise Greenwood, and Rhina Esapaillat.
The partnership was inspired in part by The Mill NY's delightful Season 5 motionpoem, Wayne the Stegosaurus, by Kenn Nesbitt, produced by Guest Producer Jennifer David — which has had 60,000 views.
Click here to view the entire portfolio of Motionpoems for Young People.
Motionpoems regularly takes on special projects, and works with select partners to explore specific topics through its MoPo Co-Productions program. Contact info@motionpoems.org.
I grew up in the 70's, when Sesame Street seemed far more interested in artistic, conceptual animated work than it does post-Elmo, and that influence is forever with me. It was inspiring to revisit that childhood wonder, and share it with today's young people.
