Allen Park-based Unity Studios Inc. and The Henry Ford will cooperate on a Civil War-era feature film that's expected to use crew from the studio's inaugural graduating class from its training center.

The film, “A Christmas Dream,” is about a mother and daughter living in the south during the Civil War, according to a statement from the studio. The Henry Ford will provide period locations for the film, which is scheduled to begin production in March.

The 106 members of the first class at the Lifton Institute for Media Skills graduated this week.

“Today we are celebrating the fulfillment of a promise – the promise to train and hire Michigan workers on film projects,” Lifton said in a statement.

The institute is part of a $146 million movie, television and new media studio and retail/residential project to be built later on 104 acres.

The studio is the brainchild of Detroit native Jimmy Lifton, founder of Burbank, Calif.-based Oracle Post, which does post-production work on several popular television shows. Other investors from Los Angeles and Michigan are involved but have not been named.

The 750,000-square-foot production facility will also include the full spectrum of production, post-production and related infrastructure and part of it will be built on the 630,000-square-foot office and engineering center at 16630 Southfield Road, adjacent to the Allen Park's city hall. The property was formerly the Visteon Technical Center.