Curious City’s Mark Mattos Getting Ready to Film Bethany Hegedus (Austin, TX)
For the release of the picture book biography Alabama Spitfire: The Story of Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird (Balzer + Bray), Curious City wanted to capture how author Bethany Hedegus‘ lifelong relationship with To Kill a Mockingbird (HarperCollins) inspired what Kirkus Review called, “a labor of love.”
Curious City traveled to Austin, Texas to interview Bethany under the iconic live oaks at The Writing Barn, Bethany’s campus dedicated to the creation of children’s literature. We found the focus for the video in the very first sentence Bethany uttered:
“Alabama Spitfire is about how Harper Lee became Harper Lee as well as the creation of her best known work To Kill a Mockingbird. But more than that, it’s the story of the development of a writer and how writers look to their past for inspiration.”
We loved looking with Bethany Hegedus into her past for the richness that inspired this biography and pulling from illustrator Erin McGuire’s illustrations of the spitfire that was Harper Lee.
Our thanks to Kristin Rens, executive editor at Balzer + Bray / Harpercollins, for her kind assistance with this project.
