Film reflects on rural childhood, beautiful and isolating
You may see a touching short film next month, one that features family-life on rolling North Country farmland, a rugged terrain where people experience beauty, and often hardship.
Filmmaker Claire Kinnen co-directed Tree House with childhood friend Leslie Haller, who also wrote the story. The friends shot the film on Haller’s family dairy farm in Dekalb, with Morgan Elliott of Canton offering his talents as the director of photography.
The plot follows a boy who seeks escape from his parents’ tense relationship and the harsh realities of farm life by finding refuge in an abandoned hunter’s stand in the woods. Tree House was featured at the Adirondack Film Festival in October of 2020.
Leslie Ann Haller, Jacob Haller, Claire Kinnen and Morgan Elliott
Before Mountain Lake PBS presents the film in April, you may learn more about it from a conversation between Kinnen and Spotlight producer Paul Larson.
The 12-minute film Tree House will appear in our special: Festival Films, Spotlight on New York Shorts. It’s part of our “Learning at Home” programming for students and families. The program airs Friday, April 2 at 2 pm on Mountain Lake PBS.
Spotlight is made possible, in part, by the Glenn and Carol Pearsall Adirondack Foundation, dedicated to improving the quality of life for year-round residents of the Adirondack Park. Spotlight is also supported by Hill and Hollow Music.