Houlton committee screens history DVD

HOULTON – On Friday evening more than 100 people got to see a detailed documentary about Houlton’s past that has been etched onto DVD for posterity.

Created by the Houlton Historical Video Committee, “The Story of Houlton, 1807-2007,” was screened at the Temple Theatre late Friday evening.

Viewers got a firsthand look at the rough draft of the DVD, a final copy of which is expected to be finished and released next month, Gregg Swallow, a member of the historical committee, said.

The DVD depicts significant times in the town’s history and is peppered with vignettes of the people who shaped the community. Filled with graphics, historical photographs and re-enactments, the DVD is approximately an hour long. Narration is provided by Ralph Bickford and Richard Rhoda, a local attorney and a historian, both of Houlton.

Committee members said they wanted to make the video to tell the tale of the town’s founding and preserve that account for future generations.

Before the start of the screening, many of those who appeared in or helped narrate parts of the production arrived at the theater in a limousine, including committee members Richard Hammond and Max Lynds, while crowds stood outside, cheering and snapping photographs.

A spotlight brought in for the occasion bounced off the cinema’s marquee and the facades of nearby buildings.

The committee pored through countless pages of old newspapers and photographs in their quest to make the DVD. In concert with their own research, they also turned to the public for early black and white photographs as well as 8mm and 16mm motion picture film.

Committee members said that one of the hardest parts of making the DVD was trying to fit everything in. In the end, it was just impossible, Swallow told the crowd.

“We could have made this video four hours long,” he said Friday evening.

Mike Fawcett, the production manager for the documentary, said making the DVD was a challenge that he found rewarding.

“History is very tricky,” he acknowledged. “It was quite a production digging up all of the history that we put in the video and re-enacting it.”

Those who attended the screening filled out surveys to provide committee members with input that they will use when doing their final edit of the DVD.