BRATTLEBORO — Director Nora Jacobson started out with a desire to put interviews on film of people she cared deeply about and who she knew were important to Vermont's history.
That effort has expanded over the past seven years until it became a six-part marathon of a film.
Yet there is nothing extravagant or extraneous about Freedom and Unity: The Vermont Movie.
Each segment is a tightly woven story of a chapter in Vermont's history, from the pre-Colonial era to the state's current energy initiatives, including its battles with the Vermont Yankee nuclear power station. It takes in just about everything that has contributed to the Vermont of today.
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The starting point for The Vermont Movie was about as personal as you can get: the death of Jacobson's father, Nicholas Jacobson, an artist and farmer who came to Vermont from New York City, and was one of the original “back-to-the-landers.”
Her father's death got her thinking about others who might not be around much longer and that their voices, their insights, needed to be preserved.
Besides her father, there was activist Dave Dellinger, poet Grace Paley, and activist/author Marty Jezer. All were gone. All were important in shaping the socio-political life of the state. So she set about filming other key figures.
That was in 2005. By 2006, Jacobson realized she needed other viewpoints and started asking other filmmakers to participate.
All in all, 25 teams of filmmakers participated, and more than 50 people were creatively involved. Jacobson did most of the editing. Tyler Gibbons of Marlboro composed original music.
Many historians consulted closely with Jacobson, and grant funding allowed Jacobson to digitize historical film footage. Roz Paine, an archivist, turned out to have footage of Jacobson's father from an interview conducted a decade earlier. The filmmakers obtained old farm footage of Calais and Rutland from the Newsreel Collective, which became Red Clover Farm when it moved from New York to Putney. The Vermont Historical Society had film reels.
“Taking the film around the state, I've loved the exchanges with people,” Jacobson said. “I want discussion, people to add their local history.”
After the tour of the cities and larger towns, she looks forward to bringing the film to the more rural towns. Ultimately, she says, she is hoping people can discuss and reflect on “where the state has been, where it is going."
She wonders if the film will “have a life outside the state,” and believes there are some universal issues raised.
“It's not only a Vermont story,” Jacobson said.
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The film features many Brattleboro-area connections. Part 3, about the commune movement, among other topics, prominently features interviews with Shoshana Rihn, Verandah Porche, and Jezer, who was interviewed before his death in 2005. Part 4, about gay rights, tells the story of Ron Squires of Guilford, the first openly gay legislator in Vermont.
Part 5, “Ceres,” features Town Meetings and the history of farming in the state, with original footage from Lilac Ridge Farm in Brattleboro. Part 6, “The People's Power” (literally and metaphorically, notes Jacobson), focuses on Vermont Yankee; the emergence of wind and solar power; and the devastation of and initial efforts to recover from Tropical Storm Irene.
This series, with each part about 90 minutes long, is clearly a labor of love from Jacobson, a gift to Vermont and its people. But there is nothing pandering or sugar-coated. It is an open, clear-eyed view; enormously educational, yet entertaining and richly layered.
All the talent that went into this project is so impressive - yet another reason we can feel fortunate indeed to call ourselves Vermonters.