Bainbridge Islander's documentary makes Emmy finals

A short documentary produced by Bainbridge High School graduate and former Review reporter Sean Roach has made the final cut for Emmy Award consideration.

"Ars Magna" profiles Seattle's Cory Calhoun, creator of what's widely considered the world's greatest anagram, a rearrangement of the first three line's of Hamlet's "To Be Or Not To Be" soliloquy. (Ars Magna is an anagram of the word anagram, and also translates to "great art" in Latin).

Roach, director Cory Kelley (a former islander), and a team of area filmmakers shot and produced the film in five days as part of the 2008 International Documentary Challenge.

"We had a great team of people that made this happen, lots of people from Bainbridge and Seattle," Roach said. "There are a lot of very talented and creative people around here and this wouldn't be possible without them."

Bainbridge resident Cathy Bellefeuille also worked on Ars Magna, along with former islanders Christina Crane and Laura Newlon.

The film was aired on PBS' documentary series POV. It has been screened at film festivals in the U.S., Canada and Europe and appeared at Celluloid Bainbridge earlier this year.

"This whole thing started as something we wanted to do for fun and now Ars Magna has gone to film festivals all over the world and taken us places I never expected to go," Roach said. "I suppose this nomination is the pinnacle of the success for this documentary. Being nominated for an Emmy is just incredible."

The film is being judged in the "New Approaches to News and Documentary Programming: Arts, Lifestyle and Culture" category, along with four other finalists. The Emmy awards ceremony for news and documentary work will be held Sept. 21, at Lincoln Center in New York City.

Roach and several other Ars Magna team members recently competed in the Seattle 48 Hour Film Project. Roach said they plan to focus on a new documentary soon.

Ars Magna can be viewed at its POV web page.

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