A production company is filming a Netflix-funded documentary at Haysville’s Campus High
Haysville, Kansas, is getting a shot at stardom.
Some of its high school students are, at least.
A New York City television production company called Left/Right Productions now has at least three camera crews at Haysville’s Campus High School following 10 different seniors through their final year of high school.
They’re working on a documentary project titled “The Graduates” that has funding from Netflix and may eventually be picked up and aired by the streaming service, said Adia Ludwig, the communication director for USD 261 in Haysville.
The project is intended to document high school life in America, she said, and crews have been following the selected students since late summer. They’re filming them both in and out of school and at extracurricular activities like football games.
Adia said that the company intentionally chose Campus High, which has approximately 1,600 students enrolled, though she’s not sure if they’re also filming at other schools across the country.
“They wanted a mid-sized high school that’s financially diverse in the middle of America,” she said. “Campus just won out.”
The Haysville community has started buzzing about the production of late, Ludwig said. Not only have people started noticing film crews trailing students, but all Campus students also were given release forms for parents to sign, just in case they were caught in the background of any scenes. Signing the form was optional.
The school also sent out communication to parents with details of the production.
Left/Right has in the past produced both fiction and nonfiction shows for Discovery Channel, HGTV, AMC and Netflix, to name a few.
One of the shows it helped produce, “This American Life” on Showtime, won an Emmy in 2007. Left/Right also is behind Bravo’s “Odd Mom Out” and Showtime’s “The Circus,” a documentary about politics.
Though there’s no guarantee the documentary will be picked up, there’s plenty of excitement about it in Haysville, Ludwig said.
“I hope it gets picked up,” she said. “The kids they’re following are really good kids.”
The production company has instructed Ludwig to tell media inquiring that they’ll share more details later, she said.
A message sent to Left/Right by The Eagle was not immediately returned on Tuesday.
Most Campus High students are attending in-person classes, Ludwig said, though parents had the option of choosing online classes as well.
She did not think the focus of the documentary was students attending school during a pandemic, Ludwig said, but it would obviously play a role in any narrative.
Haysville, which is just south of Wichita, would likely be happy for the publicity, she said.
“If it goes on Netflix, that will be pretty huge,” she said. “It could put Haysville on the map for sure.”
This story was originally published September 15, 2020 at 12:30 PM.
.jpg)