Reprinted from the Pottsville Republican
04/20/2008
Film about Centralia’s history premieres at Sovereign theater
BY JOHN E. USALIS
STAFF WRITER
ashland@newsitem.com
Centralia may be the most written-about small town in the country — maybe even the world.
Books, magazine and newspaper articles have been published about it, and it even had its own superhero comic book, with the hero (CarbonKnight) created from the mine fire. In 1980, Superman paid a visit in the comic book where he blew out the fire with his superbreath. Too bad it was only a comic book.
The latest study of Centralia is an independent film documentary on the Columbia County borough and, on May 2, the Sovereign Majestic Theater in Pottsville will roll out the red carpet for the premiere of “The Town That Was,” which deals with life in the borough then and now.
The premiere showing will be at 7 p.m., with two subsequent showings at 2 and 7 p.m. May 3. For advance tickets or for more information, call the Pottsville Area Development Corp. at 628-4647. Tickets are $5.
“This is the kind of show that is of interest to our county residents. Our strong coal heritage is deeply entwined with the story present in Centralia.” said Jeff Buchanan, theater board president.
The documentary was directed by Chris Perkel and Georgie Roland, produced by Melinka Thompson-Godoy, with the music score by Paul Henning.
The film begins with home movies taken by local residents during Centralia’s centennial in 1966. Streets filled with buildings, people and vehicles show the sharp contrast between then and now. Someone driving through Centralia today and seeing the film may find it hard to believe that it is the same town.
A drive through the borough shows a few homes scattered here and there, all well-maintained. The municipal building, which houses the fire department and ambulance, still stands. The post office building is gone, as is St. Ignatius Roman Catholic Church.
Grass, weeds and trees fill the rest of the town. Robins and other birds can be seen all around, and someone might even catch a glimpse of a rabbit hopping through the brush.
In the documentary, there are on-screen comments by former residents Tom Larkin, Ed Lawler and Fritz Michael, by Pioneer Tunnel mine foreman Howard Smith and others, but the documentary focuses on John Lokitis, 38, the youngest of the 11 residents remaining in the borough.
The Centralia tragedy begins in 1962 when a trash dump was deliberately set afire by the borough. The procedure had been done in the past to eliminate the trash, but in this case the fire came in contact with an open vein of anthracite coal. The underground fire continued to grow and spread, and after estimating the cost of extinguishing the fire at more than a half a billion dollars, the government decided to raze the town and relocate its residents. Most people left, but some diehards remained.
Perkel grew up in New York state and had heard something about Centralia in passing. It wasn’t until he met Roland, a Dunmore native, at film school at the University of Southern California that the two would consider making a film about the town.
“Georgie had been working at a bunch of odd jobs, including as night supervisor of a kitchen at a county prison in Pennsylvania,” Perkel said. “While working there, one of the inmates found out he was a filmmaker and began talking to him, suggesting that he should do a story on Centralia. He hadn’t thought about the town in a long time, but when he got home he called me and told me about it.”
The idea for the documentary began about six years ago, and after some research, it piqued their interest. After reading some Internet message boards, they found a message poster nicknamed “Coalcracker” and decided to contact him.
“When we got down there, we were surprised to have a 33-year-old man opening the door. We were expecting someone much older,” Perkel said. “He was truly the youngest remaining resident and the most outspoken. He went to such great lengths to maintain the town and the illusion of a community that he immediately grabbed us as the story.”
Perkel said Lokitis walked them around town, pointing out in great detail what homes and businesses used to line the now-empty streets and then returned to his home.
“We got back in the car and sat silent for a moment. We turned to each other and shared a glance. It was obvious — we knew we had to do this. We weren’t sure exactly what it was, we just knew a beautiful story was lurking in the charred remains of a town that was.”
He said when the filming began, there were 18 residents.
Near the Veterans Memorial is a time capsule buried in 1966 that is marked to be opened in 2016, the borough’s 150th anniversary.
“The time capsule is interesting since no one seems to know what’s inside,” Perkel said. “Will there anyone even be left there to open it at that point? I’d like to think that John will still be around to do it.”
The documentary was self-funded at the beginning, and when schedules permitted, Perkel and Roland would get together to visit Centralia together to film Lokitis and the community.
As the documentary was being filmed over the years, Perkel and Roland decided to expand the scope of the project by speaking to others outside the community on the various issues. With the expanded scope, Perkel was able to make comparisons with Centralia and other communities beyond the borough’s most famous resident, the mine fire.
“When we started expanding our circle, we learned how much the decline of the town mirrored the economic decline of the entire coal region and how the town spoke to something much bigger,” Perkel said. “Even though it was exotic with this more sensational element with regard to the mine fire, and that it was another motivating factor that you would think would lead people to leave, the decision to stay — in large part — spoke to a pathology of the region at large.
“In a lot of ways, the people who chose to stay in Centralia were motivated by many of the same things that kept people in the coal region as a whole, tied to their land and their homes and their communities despite the economic and environmental hardships that they faced with the death of the coal industry and the textile industry. And that was really interesting to us because at the beginning we had no idea that this town was anything more than just a curiosity in terms of its historical context.”
Perkel said the music score by Henning is an exceptional component of the film.
“The music is great. Paul is our composer and he’s our ace in the hole,” Perkel said. “We also met him at USC. He had done the score on one of Georgie’s short films and he’s immensely talented.”
Chris Perkel (Director)
After graduating from Columbia University with a dual degree in psychology and film studies, Chris Perkel moved to Los Angeles to earn his MFA at the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television. His thesis documentary screened at nearly a dozen international film festivals and won the UPA innovation grant, and his first screenplay (co-written with Georgie Roland) won the Jack Oakie Writing Award and was a semi,finalist at the prestigious Austin Heart of Film Screenplay Competition. Since graduating, Perkel has distinguished himself as an editor cutting features and shows that have appeared on A&E, AMC, MTV and The Sundance Channel. “The Town That Was” is his feature directing debut.
Georgie Roland (Director)
A graduate of Cornell University, Georgie Roland studied further at The London School of Economics and at the University of Southern California Graduate Film Program. After winning awards for both writing and directing, yet disillusioned by Hollywood, he returned to his hometown in Pennsylvania and began working blue-collar jobs. Based on his experiences, he has several projects in development, including his first narrative feature to be set in Northeastern Pennsylvania, as well as a novel based on his two years of experience as the night shift supervisor in the kitchen of a Pennsylvania county prison.
He co-owns the production company, Dog Player Films, with creative partner Chris Perkel. “The Town That Was” is their first documentary feature.
Melinka Thompson-Godoy (Producer)
After graduating from Columbia University in 1998, Thompson-Godoy began a three-year tenure at the independent feature film company, Good Machine. While there, she worked very closely with award winning producer Ted Hope on such projects as “Storytelling,” “In the Bedroom” and “The Laramie Project.” Beginning as his assistant, she quickly excelled at the company, moving up to senior assistant before being promoted to production executive in 2001. As production executive she worked on several films culminating with overseeing the critically acclaimed film American Splendor from pre-production through delivery. Since leaving Good Machine Thompson-Godoy has worked in several capacities ranging from location coordinator on Focus Features’ 21 Grams, to assistant production office coordinator on Season One of ABC’s hit TV show “Lost,” to most recently working as the visual effects coordinator on Julie Taymor’s upcoming musical feature film “Across the Universe,” while continuing to develop and produce short films, documentaries and features in between projects. “The Town That Was” marks her documentary feature film producing debut.
Paul Henning (Composer)
Paul Henning graduated from the University of Southern California’s Film Scoring program in 2000. Prior to USC, he earned his bachelor of music degree in composition from Washington State University, graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. Since moving to Los Angeles, Henning has worked on the score orchestrations for more than 30 feature films, including “King Kong,” “The Day After Tomorrow,” “Swordfish,” “I Spy” and “Chocolat.” As a violinist, Henning has performed with Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban, Brian Wilson (of the Beach Boys) and Smokey Robinson. He grew up in Pullman, Wash. He is an avid hiker, is fluent in French, and has also studied German, Russian, Danish and Japanese. Henning has a strong interest in architecture, and has recently photographed a collection of more than 800 historical buildings in Whitman County, Wash., to help promote their preservation. “The Town That Was” is his first feature score.
©The REPUBLICAN & Herald 2008
No comments:
Post a Comment