We are premiering for an audience FABLE from 1980 as part of our Fall 2022 RESTORATION SHOWCASE!
BYU Library auditorium 7pm, Friday September 23.
FABLE had the alternate title A FABLE FOR SCHOOL PEOPLE. But FABLE is all that appears on our title card on the film.
Uti Hof was the director. After successful years working in children’s media in Italy, Uti brought her passion and skill to the BYU Motion Picture Studio for this production. She even hoped that it would turn into a regular series with high-quality puppet productions for children, but this ended up the only project. She was the only female director at the BYU MPS from its run from 1953-1990.
Ronnie Burkett was a student from Medicine Hat, Canada here at BYU that had been working with puppetry for years already. Coming off a summer internship in New York where he learned how to create puppets from artists who worked on SESAME STREET and THE MUPPETS, he brought his talents with voices, puppet construction, and puppeteering to bring this production to life. Ronnie has gone on to have a very successful and celebrated career in puppetry and marionette theater in Canada and currently works and lives in Toronto.
Television and film actor Don Knotts provides the voice for one of the characters in FABLE. Director Uti Hof says he was a dream to work with.
The source fable for the short was first published in 1937, but this was its first adaptation to another medium. It has also been published as a children's book titled ANIMAL SCHOOL.
We have only been able to find two existing VHS copies of this film (one at BYU, the other at the University of Indiana). The VHS is woefully terrible. This production has been carefully restored from the original camera film to beautiful high-definition and we are very excited to share this with an audience.
Come see the craft and artistry of long-neglected project! (15-minute runtime)
YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS THIS!