"Greetings from Michigannehorel" is a musical web series that chronicles the surrealistic adventures of French cyber-pop artist Anne Horel across Michigan, as she tries to launch her music career in America.
The series consists of six short episodes; each episode, done in a different film genre, is accompanied by a music video for a song by Horel (with music by Vincent Hénon). It was co-produced by Horel, Anne Lauroz, and Brian J. Bowe, right, a Saugatuk resident and journalism instructor at Michigan State University who has taught at the Sorbonne in Paris.
The synopsis, from Horel's fundraising page:
In the series, Horel plays a major star in France who meets a wealthy American producer at one of her concerts. He invites her to go tour in Michigan and launch her career in the United States. She decides to follow but does not realize all the obstacles she has to overcome to complete this project.
On the road to adventure, Horel will discover the USA — for the better and for the worse.
This road trip across Michigan — the birthplace of punk, Motown and electronic music — takes our heroine through a whirlwind of surreal adventures. During this epic adventure, she meets the pantheon of music legends, guided by supernatural entities.
The episodes and music videos were all shot in Michigan over three weeks in August. A full week of shooting took place in Detroit.
"In fact, we rarely left the city limits," Bowe wrote in an email. "We found the creative energy in the city extremely inspiring.
"We visited the Trumbullplex, Dabl's African Bead Gallery, and the Heidelberg Project. We spent time with producer Steve King at 54 Sound in Ferndale. We hung out on Belle Isle and spent a lot of time cruising around and talking to people (including musicians Amy Gore and Julie Beutel and urban farmer Paul Weertz)."
Horel has been described as a "moderate" star in France: She is a well-known underground artist, and she has done segments on a French TV show about Web 2.0 culture. She has a popular radio show on an underground web-based station in Paris, and her music videos attract some media attention.
Below: The music video that accompanies the web series episode.
