Film conveys Katahdin’s power Portland’s Huey shot documentary

The star of “Wilderness & Spirit: A Mountain Called Katahdin” is Katahdin (or Ktaadn, meaning “great mountain,” in Penobscot). From the new documentary’s opening sequence of views of the mountain filmed from various locales and in different seasons, we rarely stray far from its steep slopes and rocky crags. Its beauty and stature are apparent whether we’re watching climbers hug its icy cliffs or following the progress of cross-country skiers across a frozen lake that lies in the mountain’s shadow.

Several different strands weave through the film – or trails may be a more fitting metaphor. One major one is the annual “Katahdin 100” organized by the Penobscot tribe. Huey, an independent filmmaker from Portland, follows Penobscot chief Barry Dana, his wife, Lori, and their friends on the arduous yet fulfilling 100-mile journey by foot and canoe, starting at Indian Island and ending at the base of Katahdin. The American Indians’ rapport with Pomola, as they call the spirit god of Katahdin, is allotted equal if not more film time than the story of Gov. Percival Baxter’s magnanimous and visionary gift to the state of Maine.

The film avoids the issue of a north woods park, but it does briefly touch on the preservation-conservation debate that goes on forever between those who think only the animals belong there and those who favor recreation. Jean Hoekwater, Baxter Park naturalist, comes off as the most sensible and eloquent.

The film is rife with cameo appearances. The elderly Donn Fendler offers an abridged account of his famous off-trail misadventure as a child, captured in the classic book “Lost on a Mountain in Maine.” He suffered such hunger during his ordeal that he experienced one of the great dreams of a starving individual: in an automat, stuffing coins into the slot, he finds the tray empty every time he opens the little window to retrieve a sandwich or a piece of pie.

The commentary is especially good because it comes from a variety of individuals both expert and amateur. Gail Scott from the University of Maine at Presque Isle speaks about Marsden Hartley, the Maine painter and Katahdin worshipper on whose life and work she is an authority. Contemporary painter Marguerite Robichaux, a resident of Bingham, shows off her Katahdin “altarpiece,” which was included in a fine exhibition of artists’ renderings of the mountain organized by the L.C. Bates Museum in Hinckley a few years ago.

We also hear from Muriel Woodworth, owner of Camp Rhodora, which was established on the shores of Millinocket Lake by the great 19th century painter Frederick Church. Woodworth touts the drinking parties at the camp and gives the last eloquent word on the place: “End of the world, but God’s country.”

Katahdin lures people from all over the world; it is a place of pilgrimage, offering the wilderness equivalent of a trip to Lourdes. In one scene, Maurine Bacon, owner of the North Woods Trading Post, explains how a number of folks travel to the mountain to escape tragedies in their lives. She might have been thinking of William Carpenter’s poem “Man Climbing Katahdin,” which opens with the lines, “After a final quarrel with his wife, after/they’d agreed it was all over, a man drove up/to Maine, to climb Katahdin.”

Those viewers who have climbed Katahdin will enjoy the replay of their visits: camping outside park headquarters New Year’s Eve to reserve a cabin; stopping the car at the gate for a pass; hiking the trails. The names of landmarks alone should spark memories: Abol Trail, Chimney Pond, the Knife Edge, Thoreau Spring. With its wealth of moose, deer and loon footage, the film will also please the wildlife aficionado. There may be a bit too much time-lapse photography, but on the other hand, to witness dawn on the mountain that catches the first light of day on the continent via this method of filming is pretty awesome.

This movie, “five years in the making” (a fact we are not allowed to forget in its promotion), is the latest and maybe greatest documentary by the Portland filmmaker who goes by the name Huey. In 2002, he was, in a matter of speaking, designated a Maine cultural treasure when First Lady Mary Herman, on behalf of the Maine Film Commission, presented him with the first “Huey” Award. Named in his honor, the award is given annually to a Maine resident who exhibits “exceptional contributions to film, video and motion media in Maine.”

That’s Huey.

“Wilderness & Spirit” will be screened at The Grand Auditorium in Ellsworth at 7 p.m. on May 4 Huey will introduce the film. The film will also be shown at the Farnsworth Museum of Art in Rockland at 6:30 p.m. May 16. For more information, contact Huey at 773-1130 and hueyfilm@nlis.net or visit www.filmsbyhuey.com.