Douglas Corcoran Grant Story

Douglas Corcoran Grant Story

Filming a Documentary: Midwest IceAge!

Thanks to my NTC Grant, I developed a learning opportunity that only life could have provided outside of the university. Originally, I applied for a grant to shoot my senior capstone documentary on my father’s art and the sacrifices he made in life. However, I needed to quickly develop a new story and ended up shooting a different kind of art documentary. My father felt obligated to join the Army when he was drafted instead of going to college because of his sense of patriotism. My father gave up a fully paid scholarship to a well-known Chicago art school after high school to fight for his country, and when he returned home, his family needed him to help because his father had fallen ill. The rest is history.

My father never returned to school and taught himself the different techniques and styles of art that he uses to illustrate books and magazines. When I pulled into my childhood home around Christmas time, my mother did not look good. She was weak and very tired. My mom was unable to participate in any family activities for very long without needing to lie down and rest. My dad and I started to shoot the interview portion of my documentary, Sacrificed, Trading Art for War! That is as far as we got with it.

My wife, Lorene, who is a doctor suspected my mom had congestive heart failure or CHF and let me know that her symptoms were serious. My father told me that he and my sister have been trying with no luck to get my mother to go to see a doctor. She talked to my mom and told her that she needed to go to the ER that night. She reluctantly agreed to get evaluated by medical experts and was admitted to the hospital. She did, indeed, have CHF. Her blood pressure had been out of control for years, and this, subsequently, caused damage to her kidneys. She was retaining fluid in her body, and she has been on dialysis since this time. I ended up spending all of the holiday break in Toledo, Ohio caring for my mother and sitting with her in the hospital.

Being an older man and a father myself, I always have a plan B. I have a friend in Napoleon, Ohio, which is about 45 minutes west of Toledo, who owns an Ice Carving company. I thought this would be a great topic for my documentary! So, I called Chad, and he agreed to let me come out for a few days to interview and film him and his employees creating their works of art made out of ice.

 

I was also lucky because Chad’s company, Ice Creations, was putting on a local winter festival in the nearby town of Perrysburg, Ohio. I was able to get footage of the people enjoying the festival, watching the ice carving demos, and enjoying the ice art that was displayed for the people to enjoy around town. With this new concept, I quickly pivoted to this new narrative and began to shoot what I am calling Midwest IceAge! This is being finished and handed in for my senior capstone.

My mother was released from the hospital shortly before I returned to New Orleans for the spring semester at Tulane. She was prescribed a bunch of meds, a new diet, is on fluid restriction, and currently has dialysis three days a week. This has been an adjustment for all of us, and I am in constant contact to help her adjust and get through this. I am thankful we caught it when we did. I only wonder if things would be different if we caught it sooner. My mother is not a big fan of dialysis, but I do not suspect anyone would be, sitting in a lab environment for hours on end with your blood being pumped in and out of your body. However, this is our new normal now, and we are all trying to adjust and get through it together.

Thanks to the NTC grant, I was there to help my mom when she needed me, and I had the opportunity to think quickly on my feet to produce my senior project.