Student Films Examine “LARPing” and Life after Foster Care

Two documentary films produced by University of Arkansas students will premier at 6 p.m. Monday, October 4, in the Arkansas Union Theatre. The screenings are free and open to the public. Each screening will include a question and answer session with the student filmmakers.

My Quest to LARP: Adventures of a Giraffe Changeling, was produced by Kelly Carpenter, Alexis Edwards, and Wei Xu, who decided the best way to document a subject is to experience it themselves. Their film tells the story of a local LARP, that is, live action role playing, chapter called Dragon Crest.

The filmmakers set out to learn about LARPing by sending Edwards to sign up with the group.

The documentary was produced by Edwards and Carpenter and shot by Xu. The film follows Edwards' process of meeting with the couple in charge of Dragon Crest, Glenn and Colleen Whitman; creating a character and a costume; and spending a weekend playing with the group at their property outside of Huntsville.

The crew not only documented the experience Edwards had, but also interviewed a number of LARPers about the advantages and drawbacks to LARPing. What they found surprised them.

"In the Dragon Crest group, a wide variety of people LARP, it is not just the young geeky stereotype that you see in the media," Carpenter said.

Edwards, co-writer and producer of the film, is a soon-to-be graduate of the journalism department and the University of Arkansas. This is her first film and she plans to have a career in television after she graduates.

Carpenter, an anthropology major, co-wrote, produced, and edited the film.

Xu, an exchange student from China, is in his first year of graduate school studying journalism and political science. He has had ten years of experience in the newsroom in China, and used his skills as a photographer to shoot the documentary.

In the film Saving Grace two graduate students chronicled one couple's effort to help young women transition from foster care to life as independent adults. Amanda Ryan and John Henley Jr. produced the film about Becky and Kent Shaffer. The Shaffers opened Saving Grace, a transitional home for young women who are homeless or have just aged out of the foster care system.

Saving Grace welcomed its first two residents in January, 2010. One young woman, Ashley completed high school during her first few months at Saving Grace and the second, LaQuita, enrolled in beauty school. LaQuita has since left the program, but other young women have joined Ashley, all hoping to gain a start toward a better life.

Saving Grace also features Janna, 25, who aged out of the foster care system on her own, and can describe all too vividly the difficulty of transitioning into adulthood alone.

The student films were produce in graduate documentary film classes taught from fall 2009-spring 2010 by journalism professors Larry Foley and Dale Carpenter.