Jim Haverkamp

When Walt Whitman Was a Little Girl

As the title suggests, this is a speculative biography of the artistic side of Walt Whitman. Starting out as an ordinary nine year old girl, young Walt is soon catapulted into the world with all her senses ablaze. Combining drama, dance, puppetry, and potato cannons, the film is a sometimes funny, sometimes sad rumination on growing up as a 'sensitive kid.'

When Walt Whitman Was a Little Girl

As the title suggests, this is a speculative biography of the artistic side of Walt Whitman. Starting out as an ordinary nine year old girl, young Walt is soon catapulted into the world with all her senses ablaze. Combining drama, dance, puppetry, and potato cannons, the film is a sometimes funny, sometimes sad rumination on growing up as a 'sensitive kid.'

When Walt Whitman Was a Little Girl

As the title suggests, this is a speculative biography of the artistic side of Walt Whitman. Starting out as an ordinary nine year old girl, young Walt is soon catapulted into the world with all her senses ablaze. Combining drama, dance, puppetry, and potato cannons, the film is a sometimes funny, sometimes sad rumination on growing up as a 'sensitive kid.'

It Had Wings

A widow, alone at home, sees something heavenly and wounded fall into her backyard. The old woman, coffee mug in hand, naturally tries to help. In this redemptive tale, written and narrated by Allan Gurganus, the ordinary goes briefly mythic. Kindness becomes what might save us yet.

The Voice in Isabel Fleiss's Office

A woman with an unusual malady—cobweb buildup in the throat—receives an even more unusual treatment in this adaptation of a surreal poem by North Carolina writer Virgil Renfroe.

Armor of God

Ear-splitting improvisational noise sculpture and Christianity aren't normally mentioned in the same breath. But they are the twin passions of North Carolina musician Scotty Irving, and the essential elements of his one-man act, Clang Quartet. Using homemade instruments achieving unfathomable volumes (and inspired by Biblical verse), Irving challenges his audience to rethink traditional ideas of music and spirituality. When Irving's motivations for walking so far out on musical and theological limbs are revealed, the "Armor of God" becomes a metaphor for the courage to create. Armor of God screened at more than eighty festivals and cinema venues internationally, winning nine awards (including a Juror's Citation from the Black Maria Film and Video Festival). The film also screened on regional PBS.