PLATTSBURGH - Mountain Lake PBS will premiere the animated documentary, "Dead Reckoning ~ Champlain in America," on Tuesday at the Cumberland 12 Cinemas in Plattsburgh.

In partnership with Lakes to Locks Passage and the New York State Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial Commission, and teaming with Montreal-based Artifex Animation Studio, Mountain Lake PBS produced this fully animated documentary on French explorer Samuel de Champlain's explorations in North America.

Mountain Lake PBS says the documentary drew on current American and Canadian academic research and scholarship, and was made in collaboration with cutting-edge animators and filmmakers on both sides of the border. The PBS station claims the first historically accurate, completely animated documentary on Champlain.

"The timing was right for a production that celebrates the 400th anniversary of Champlain's journeys," Mountain Lake PBS CEO and President Alice Recore stated.

With school use in mind, interactive lesson plans and supportive Web-based content were created, suitable for a number of educational outlets including Thinkfiniti (formerly MarcoPolo), which includes thousands of lesson plans that conform to state K-12 core curriculum standards, and EdVideo Online, a Web-based education service made available free of charge to teachers and students across New York by PBS stations.

Mountain Lake PBS Director of Production Colin Powers saw animation as an opportunity to "engage many audiences, young and old, in telling the story of this legendary northern explorer. But we needed to accurately depict 17th-century North America, its environments and people, with historical credibility. Animation gave us the flexibility to do that."

Powers conceived the project and recruited filmmaker Frank Christopher to write and produce "Dead Reckoning." Marc Hall, president of Artifex Animation Studios, directed and supervised the creation of the animation, graphic and Web components of the production.

"Dead Reckoning ~ Champlain in America" will be broadcast throughout the United States on PBS and in parts of Canada in 2010.

Other sponsors include Northern Utilities, the province of Quebec, the Lake Champlain Basin Program and Clinton County, N.Y.

For more information about the documentary and other premiere dates, contact Mountain Lake PBS at 1-800-836-5700 or 1-518-563-9770.