So you’re a kid who loves Sci-Fi (and fan films)–or maybe you’re a parent of a kid like that–and you just happen to live in Lake Tahoe. Well, you might wanna look into a course being offered this summer at Lake Tahoe Community College’s day camp Kids College, aimed at tweens ages 10-14. Daryl Frazetti, a professor at the college, will be offering a kid-friendly version of his Star Trek anthropology class called, The Creatures and Cultures of Star Trek and Star Wars. Here’s the course description:
Warp into adventure with your favorite Star Trek and Star Wars characters. This fun and informative course will use the force to help guide travelers to strange new worlds where they will seek out and study the lives of such aliens as Klingons, Ferengi, Vulcans, Wookies, Ewoks, Jedi, and more. We will explore their foods, languages, behaviors and technologies. Be sure to beam aboard and be a part of these intergalactic travels. (15 students maximum)
Each class is two hours long and meets twice a week for roughly a month. The reason I mention it here is that fan films will be a part of the curriculum, and it turns out students will be shooting a little video of their own, so who knows? Maybe some flicks will emerge from the class.
As mentioned some time ago, Frazetti knows his stuff when it comes to fan productions. I was honored a while back to vet an essay he wrote about fan films for a book that’s coming out right around the same time as mine: Fear, Cultural Anxiety and Transformation: Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Films Remade. It’s a collection of essays on…well, the book title says it all, really. Frazetti’s essay, “Distinct Identities of Star Trek Fan Film Remakes” covers a lot of ground in a small space, covering history and motivations behind a slew of Trek fan productions. If you’re (hopefully) looking forward to my book, you’ll want to give his essay a read, to be sure. Folks who’ve seen the 1999 documentary, Trekkies, may remember Frazetti well; these days, he’s a professor in the Department of Anthropology at LTCC, but back then, he was “that guy who dresses his cats in Star Trek uniforms.”
Terrific! I am so excited about this. You are doing a great thing for kids.
This is awesome! There is going to be an adult Star Wars course next year at the college too, I think online.