Dennis Strom on your far left, Harpold on far right with cast and crew in between, after film
South Charleston filmmaker Greg Harpold presented an amazing, shattering new
feature film on March 14th, 2009, about 2.5 years after he shot the film in
June 2006. More than 100 people, one of the largest crowds ever for the WV
Film Series. Also many of the crew and cast from the film were in attendance
at the South Charleston Museum La Belle Theater to see the results of all of
their hard work. Playwright Dan Kehde and his wife Penny were in attendance
since even they had not seen the film. Everyone was excited to see what
Harpold had created using an updated version of Thorton Wilder’s ”Our Town.”
The play was first presented in spring 2005 at the WVSU Capitol Center. It was performed a second time in May 2006.
Wife Penny with playwright Dan Kehde at Main Tin before the film
In a 2006 interview, Kehde had this to say about the film, “By all standards, this is a difficult play to watch. The language is rough in places, and the situations are often irreverent if not outright offensive. I’ve rated it as PG14 and you should probably take that pretty seriously. It’s not for kids. I’d like to think the play tells the truth, or has at least moments of it. We all hope it will challenge the audience. I think theater needs to challenge an audience from time to time-there’s a power in theater that is so often ignored for the sake of box office receipts and Broadway aspirations.”
Kehde talking about play and film before the show
Harpold extended special credits and thanks to local musical artist Chuck Biel
for his musical score that perfectly set the mood of the film. He also gave praise
to fellow filmakers K.C. Bragg for editing on the project as well as Dennis Strom
who worked like crazy during the hot summer nights, hauling equipment up to
Charleston’s thanatopolis, The Spring Hill Cemetery, with 60,000 inhabitants. Strom has directed many of his own films including “Magic in the Valley,”(2007) about the Children’s Theater of Charleston where he designs sets and his wife directs, and “Martha and Me,” a funny short meditation on Martha Stewart’s prison stay in WV.
SCM chairman Rhuel Craddock with filmmaker Greg Harpold in the booth
SCM chairman Rhuel Cradock began the night’s program by talking about the major new project by SCM to build a 400 foot display in the new Mound Intpretative Center that opens on Friday, March 27th at 11 AM. SCM has hired WV State Museum consultant Stan Bumgardner to design a display that recreates one of the glass operations that once existed at the two Belgian glass factories that once existed in S.C., Banner and Dunkirk. SCM needs to raise $25,000 for the exhibit.
Filmmaker Greg Harpold introducing the film
Greg Harpold took the stage, center, and expressed his great appreciation to many people including SCM for bringing back The La Belle Theater to life. Growing up in S.C., Harpold used to watch a lot of films there. He spoke about the many problems he had creating a feature length, fictional film for the first time despite years of work on many educational films for Cambridge Educational and now Jaguar Educational.
He wrote me today, “I have been making films for years and this one proved to be an extremely powerful narrative unlike the educational documentaries I have presented before…with no funding and produced out of pocket and on simply donated time. The pure fact that my employment both at Jaguar and freelance is an ever changing environment caused the film to not be cut for two plus years. I needed to show the film in its first and early stages in order to get feedback for the completion of the project. The film needed some technical love but the story was sound…”After some technical problems setting up the first complete copy of the film, the film started and ran with just two small digital glitches. The script, acting, visual, and music were all fine. There were a few problems with the sound. Harpold explained earlier that the generator they had used was not exactly quiet.The film was dedicated to cast member Laura Glassburn who has died since the film was photographed. She also performed in the theatrical version.
The audience- move than 100 – largest for recent WV Film series
After the film ended around 8:30 PM, Harpold, Strom and the cast and crew memebers who were present took the stage and answered questions. They also each made a statement about traveling from Morgantown, North Carolina, etc. to be present. Harpold plans on cleaning up the film some, and will be showing it a second time at the Spring W.V. Intl. Film Festival on April 29th. ( Greg Carroll, a WVIFF board member, was present for the premiere.)
No serious comment was made by playwright Kehde other than a jokingly yelled
“I hate you!” after the film to which Harpold replied “great…it looks like we
are getting the band back together.”
Harpold had indeed proven that he was a “filmmaker,” and plans on showing his new film around the country. ( Harpold has won many, many awards for his films, and is a first-rate actor who has appeared in many local plays, TV commercials, etc.)
Congrats to Mr. Harpold, Kehde, Strom, Bragg,
Biel and everyone who has worked for years on this poignant film. It is one thing to watch “Our Town” about deceased older people who recall their lives, but another to watch young people, only starting to live, look back with such nostalgia. I am sure that people who saw the play and now the film will have to seriously think about the “infinite jest” that contemporary life is for our young people.
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