Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Carrie Coaplen. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Carrie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
Other than the documentary that I’m currently working on, Halcyon Daze, the most meaningful project I’ve completed is my dissertation about how Hurricane Katrina survivors recreate a sense of home after displacement. As a lifetime writer, I’ve often used writing to recreate a sense of home or place or other kinds of liminal spaces. As I approached the completion of my PhD, grounded in Composition and Rhetoric, I wondered if others used writing to get their arms around the idea of home or meaningful places. And because the Galactic Starcruiser closed, this documentary builds on my work and expertise about how those who are displaced from meaningful spaces recreate them. We, they, do so through cosplay, exchanging items, revisiting our travels, gathering for special events, writing, art, and community.
Connected to that work, surprisingly, the Galactic Starcruiser became a kind of home for a number of guests who “voyaged” on the Halcyon (the name of the Starcruiser). Ergo, our stories, connections, and practices have become a way of recreating home and a sense of that place.
So, it follows that making this documentary has also been a very meaningful project, and it continues to be because I am investigating my identity through the lens of that experience. I’m asking questions about what drives human needs, as well as how art can build positive cultural practices such as generosity, inclusion, acceptance, creativity, collaboration, and support. Additionally, the documentary team has become close friends. Even more, I’ve become close with Starcruiser “passengers.” Together, we commemorate the Starcruiser experience for its profound transformational effect on so many of us, including that we have become a found family.
Carrie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am a lifelong educator and writer who has always been interested in recording what’s happening around me. For example, when I was around ten years old, I remember transcribing whatever my younger brother said for a day. What drove me to do that? Maybe, even then, I wanted to gather information about life in a medium that would allow me to analyze it after the fact, to look back and understand more. So I got into writing, probably, to figure my world out from a young age and to express my understanding through a subjective, creative lens. Along the way, I published a few poems, essays, and academic articles through earning a degrees in English, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric and Composition.
After journeying on the Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser twice, with another voyage booked, I was obsessed. Who would I become? What cosplay would represent my background with symbolic fidelity? What items would my character make and offer to fellow travelers aboard the Halcyon. I spent many weekends with a glue gun and notebook, crafting and writing, and researching. But why? What about that experience, that story, created the obsession? Being a creative nonfiction writer, film seemed natural for an exploratory narrative that would help me, and others, understand the attraction, but more, try to explain why some guests become fixated on the experience.
What I hope your readers understand is that I’m not a film maker, but I am a very curious and enthusiastic investigator who understands the force as well as the power of the Star Wars mythos. These both lay a foundation for my transformation into directing a film that will hopefully share what the Starcruiser was all about, from living IN Star Wars for two days on the Halcyon, to peeking behind the curtain into the community’s enthusiastic fandom.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
One of my creative journey’s particular goals for Halcyon Daze is to valorize a few ideas and experiences that have been formative to how I move through the world: One of those is adults having permission to play and be kid like, Another is art’s power to directly, positively change culture. Finally, another goal is to highlight the experience of marginalized people through main characters in the Galactic Starcruiser’s most compelling story paths.
My mission in creating a feature length documentary about this award winning immersive, interactive theatrical experience touches on each of these goals in surprising, behind the scenes moments. These threads also celebrate our community as they carry the Starcruiser forward after the attraction closed in Fall of 2023.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
I teach seniors at duPont “Manual” High School in Louisville, Kentucky. Manual is a known for enrolling high achievers and strong performers. Many of our students believe that they are artists, from future creative writers, to stage directors, to engineers, they create art, or artfully design. In some ways, however, they are still non-creatives because their current work as high school students is structured, guided, and supported by parents, mentors, teachers, and public school dictates. So, for them and others, what may be difficult to understand is how much boring labor, logistics, communication, scheduling, and collaborations goes into creating art.
If all I needed to do was film and edit, the work of making a feature length documentary would seem more traditionally like making art, straightforwardly. However, as the director, I manage the team, including scheduling meetings, planning fundraising, setting goals, as well as making travel reservations. I am also responsible for keeping our social accounts active, and our website updated. I created an LLC and applied for our fiscal sponsorship with the Louisville Film Society. All of these tasks do not seem like art. So, for students and non creatives, understand that I am a director because I am an organized planner who is committed to the project. I also have many years of experience with facilitation. I understand group dynamics, but have also had to work independently as a former tenure track professor. This oddball collection of skills and experiences, along with my writerly, curious self, helps me get to the creative work of the creative work.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.halcyondazefilm.com
- Instagram: @halcyondoc
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HalcyonDazeDoc
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@HalcyonDazeDoc
Image Credits
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