By Jill Yesko , University Relations
Contact: (336) 334-5371
Posted 7-20-07
Dr. Michael Frierson
GREENSBORO, NC – Dr. Michael Frierson, an associate professor in the Department of Broadcasting and Cinema, directed and edited seven short video documentaries for the 2007 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.
The documentaries were broadcast live from the AT&T Blueroom website during the festival which was held April 25 to May 4. The videos were part of the live web cast that also included performances by Allen Toussaint, Bonnie Raitt, Buckwheat Zydeco, Norah Jones and Rod Stewart.
The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is the second-largest festival held in the city after Mardi Gras. The AT&T Blueroom is a web site providing updates on sports, music, game and major cultural events.
Among the segments were a profile of chef from the restaurant Cochon du Lait, the collection of Mardi Gras Indian artifacts held by the Backstreet Cultural Museum and the work of primitive Louisiana painter Bill Hemmerling.
Frierson has produced short clay-animated films for the Children’s Television Workshop and Nickelodeon. His book “Clay Animation: American Highlights 1908 to the Present,” won the Society for Animation Studies McLaren-Lambert Award in 1995.
The trip to New Orleans was not Frierson’s first to the Crescent City. “I lived in New Orleans for five years; I’ve always loved that town,” said Frierson. “The street culture is really fantastic. It’s a great melting pot.”
Frierson is currently working on a documentary about the friendship between George Dorsett, a Ku Klux Klan member and FBI informant, and Dargan Frierson, a former FBI agent.
