Editor's note: Senator Bill Doyle's collaborative documentary films offer vital lessons into the culture of "traditional" Vermont, at a time when Peak Oil, financial instability and an exhausted U.S. Empire make the possibility of going "back to the future" very real. Here, he gives an overview of the film-making process over thne last few years.

One of the most satisfying experiences in the years that I’ve taught at Johnson State College is the production of films relating to life in four Vermont counties.  The making of the films involves collaboration with my students and videographer Vince Franke, Peregrine Productions.  The idea for this series began in 2005 when I saw a documentary at Harwood Union High School in Duxbury.  The 30-minute film, “Common Ground:  The Stories of Waterbury to Warren” was compiled by juniors and their teacher.  The film had the benefit of an outstanding videographer, Vince Franke.  The auditorium was filled and the film was very well received.   

As I drove home that night to Montpelier, I realized that similar films could be made of Vermont counties.  There are wonderful histories of towns in Vermont, but not as much attention has been paid to our counties, who are much younger than our towns.    

I spent the summer of 2005 making at least 100 phone calls to Lamoille County clerks, Lamoille County historical societies, libraries and local legislators.  I obtained recommendations of names from each town in the county which had been recommended for knowledge of their town’s history.  When I meet my Vermont History class in late August, I give the names to each student.  Each student is responsible for one interview in one town.  After that, they make telephone calls to the individuals and set up a date for an interview, which lasts between an hour and hour and a half.  Students are responsible for transcribing the interviews and making them available to local libraries.     

Once the interviews have been transcribed, Franke edits all of the material and is responsible for obtaining the photographs.  The goal of the county film project is to give residents in a county a concept of what it was like to live 50 years ago.     

Our first production was Lamoille County.  It was shown twice at the college with over 250 people attending.  According to the college newspaper, Basement Medicine, “the Ellsworth Room appeared more like a packed movie theater than a classroom on Tuesday, December 13, as attendees gathered to view the screening of the historical film.     

The students displayed unusual initiative in the making and presenting of the film.  Lara Starr was responsible for the background music, which was filmed at her home in Newport.  Meredith Kenten introduced the film with Lamoille County Senator Susan Bartlett.  The students also helped in fundraising.  Dan Phillips, president of the student association, was instrumental in taking the lead in having the association contribution $2,000 to the project.  On a day I could not meet with the president of Smuggler’s Notch, I asked Matt Daubenspeck to represent me, and he obtained the $1,500 for the project.  Subsequent to the showing of the project, one of our students introduced the film at the Stowe Historical Society and took questions at the end.  A few days later, John Harris introduced the film at the Lamoille County Planning Commission.  In March, the film was shown on Across the Fence, WCAX, and a few days later was shown on Vermont Public Television, and the night that we showed the film on public television, the film raised $3,000 for the studio.   

The film also received considerable media support.  Representative Floyd Nease described the film as “tremendous.”  “The vale of this cannot be overstated, this stuff is profound and so significant because it is hard to get perspective on it.  This captures mundane, daily routines-stories within families that are so important.”  Senator Susan Bartlett, Lamoille County Senator, was also quoted by the Stowe Reporter, and she said “the film, said it reminded me how hard people used to work merely to have enough food.  Canning hundreds of jars of home-grown vegetables is a task without much context today.  We are just all clueless.”

The Hardwick Gazette called the film “an interesting bit of history for anyone who spent enough time in the county to become familiar with its people, landmarks and its story.”
Commentary about the film also came from Kenneth Peck, who is the host of a Vermont television program, Real Independence, Vermont’s Showcase.  Peck said “much of that which was submitted for our consideration are relatively ‘slick’ narrative and documentary projects by young filmmakers while they represent the next generation of Vermont media professionals, they do not touch close to the soul of Vermont in any manner.  Life in Lamoille does.  It deserves to reach a broad statewide audience.  Danis Regal, executive director of the Vermont Film Commission, suggested that “life in Lamoille should be on the short list of films given to Vermont libraries.”

The next film project related to Franklin County.  In March of 2006, Peter Mallett wrote me the following letter.  He said “Several nights ago, we watched the history of Lamoille County.  It was great fun, and we enjoyed it very much.  Then a few days later, we caught Across the Fence and your interview on how it took place.”  Malett then suggested Franklin County.  
With respect to funding for the Franklin County film, I asked Robert Ullrich, Professor Emeritus from the University of Vermont, who had seen the film.  Ullrich went on to say, “This is a project that will engross the formative student mind and not let it go.  The project is multifaceted in ways that introduce the student to aspects of learning that they might easily otherwise never experience:  The dynamics of teamwork, and interaction in a very complex endeavor, fundraising, immersed team effort, sleuthing through both traditional and unorthodox resources to find relative stories and information, as well as, the people to narrate them, planning and conducting interviews of the subjects, arranging for the videotaping the interviews and then editing and assembling the diverse interviews into a coherent, high-quality film, complete with background music will intrigue the public.”

In preparation for the Franklin project I travelled to St. Albans on June 20th.  On that day, I had an early morning interview with WSSR, an interview on Channel 15, cable TV, and interview with County Currier, a speaking engagement at the St. Albans Rotary Club, and finally, another hour TV show on public access with Senator Don Collins.

Matt Daubenspeck also was part of the County Courier interview.  He said, “It’s an amazing experience.  People talking about things like party telephone lines and jobs that aren’t around anymore.  Where else do you hear that?  You don’t, especially people in my generation, so this is really important.”

In my presentation to the Rotary Club it was a very appropriate year to make a film relating to Franklin County because Franklin County was named for Benjamin Franklin and that this is the year of Franklin’s 300th birthday.  

The highlight of the St. Albans experience was a showing of the film on December 15, 2006.  The meeting was sponsored by the St. Albans Historical Society.  The moderator that night was Admiral Warren Hamm, President of the Historical Society.  He then introduced Barbara Murphy, President of Johnson State College.  After the film, many of those interviewed in the film included former representative George Stebbins from Sheldon, former member from Swanton Frank Deprato and Representative Richard Howrigan from Fairfield.

The story of the film “Life in Orleans County” began when our Vermont History class visited the Old Stone House in Brownington.  The director of the Stone House was Peggy Day Gibson and was very active in making sure that the film would be distributed throughout the county.  The largest turnout took place in the Goodrich Library in Newport who was hosted by Representative Scott Wheeler.  Wheeler is the publisher of Vermont’s Northland Journal, and he wrote:  “If the large turnout of thee showing of the film is an indicator of the people’s interest in this region’s history, it speaks volumes.  The film kept the crowd laughing and reminiscing.”
In an article in the Caledonian Record, written by Tina Starr, she wrote the following:  “The Orleans County documentary may not put Ken Burns out of a job quite yet, but it is a sophisticated and fascinating look at life in the Northeast Kingdom a generation ago – its economy, social life, church going, entertainment, education and government.”  Starr’s article talked about “little girls wore dresses made out of grain sacks and doctors took eggs in exchange for house calls.”

I showed this film to a class of art students at Montpelier High School.  One student wrote:  “It’s really amazing that families back then were completely centered around family, school and church.  Today, people don’t think like that anymore.  I think it would be cool to go back to the farming community that I grew up in and take pictures of people I’ve known all my life in order to document their lives.

The premiere of the most recent film, “Life in Chittenden County”, was shown on the eve of the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Samuel de Champlain to the Lake that now bears his name.  In a story written by Brent H. Allen of the Burlington Free Press he said:  “Life in Chittenden County begins telling the county story with the growth of Lake Champlain as a lumber port in the 1820s. The film looks at the growth of Winooski as a mill town and the once developed status of South Burlington.  ‘It was a very rural place’, a long-time resident recalls, ‘once you got outside of Burlington, all farms.’”  The first showing of the film was in mid December, 1998 at the Essex Cinema Outlet.

Attending the showing of the film was Sarah Dopp, Chair of the Chittenden County Historical Society.  Dopp wrote:  “I was so pleased to see the wonderful interviews with a number of members and friends of the society.  They were articulate spokespersons for the major themes of life in the county during the 1920s, 30s and 40s.  The choice of the film footage and photographs was exceptional and made certain elements of the story, such as agricultural operations, really come to life.  Many of the photos, having come from private collections, have not been seen by the public before, and this is a special treat.  This series of films is doing a real service to the state of Vermont in several ways.  First of all, history is made very accessible and personal through this approach.  There seems to be a real appetite for this kind of work these days.  But in addition to all this, the students at Johnson State College are having a unique opportunity to hear the stories of some of the old timers as well as the craft of film making.  History is all about stories, and what better way for the students to learn to love the history of their state?!  Hats off to all involved with this production.  This was a very professional production.  I can’t wait to view the other films in the series!”

The long-range plan is to produce a film about all of Vermont’s 14 counties.  In the springtime, there will be a production of life in Grand Isle County and in December of 2009, a film relating to life in Washington County is planned.