HOULTON, Maine – Filmmakers Tom van Kalken and Mia Weinberger are discovering that Houlton is not a stereotypical, homogenous rural Maine town.
“If you just drove through town you would think it was like any small town in America,” van Kalken said. “But if you stop and meet the people and get to know them, there’s a lot of layers to it and that’s what we’re trying to get across.”
The idea for a Houlton-based feature-length documentary, “A Moment in the Sun,” got started a bit by chance when the New York filmmakers began thinking about viewing the total solar eclipse on April 8.
As they explored the path of totality, the swath of American towns cast into total darkness by the moon’s shadow, the filmmaking duo decided to tell the story of Houlton and the eclipse.
“I was watching a video of a Houlton eclipse planning public forum and I was like, ‘I love this town, I love these people and it’s so interesting and cool that it’s the last place to see the eclipse in the country,’” Weinberger said.
Since that time about three months ago, their lens has been focused on Houlton and preparations for a projected 40,000 visitors expected to arrive in town for the unearthly event.
The town is one character in the documentary as are the other four main characters van Kalken and Weinberger have been shadowing for the past few months.
The four featured characters in “A Moment in the Sun” are Johanna Johnston, the executive director of the Southern Aroostook Development Corp. and head of the town’s eclipse planning; Mark Horvath, an astrophysicist who has been instrumental in offering the science side of things for the planning; Dave Hutchinson, the Houlton Unitarian Universalist minister and Erica Burkhart, a local entrepreneur who owns an in-town embroidery business while also running Bulrush Farm with her husband and five children.
Just the other day, Burkhart invited the filmmakers to her home for dinner.
“We’ve had more home cooked dinners since we came to Houlton than we have ever had in New York,” they said. “This has turned into a much more personal project because we really connected with the people of Houlton. We really feel this responsibility to tell a good story on behalf of these people.”
Several themes for the documentary are emerging during filming, they said.
The more obvious is the story of the community coming together and preparing for such a large event.
The other is that the film is relatable to every life.
“We don’t know what the weather will be like, we don’t know how many people are going to come, but we prepare anyway and prepare the best you can,” van Kalken said. “And then that’s the best you can hope for and it is relatable to a lot of people. There are unknowns in all our lives.”
Earlier this week, Johnston, one of the characters in the film and the person who is making sure all the critical details like porta potties and shuttle bus routes, food, gas and back-up cell service are in place, was taking a short break from filming.
“What a wonderful opportunity for our community to be able to show how we can come together to host such a monumental event,” she said. “This is something that will outlive this one weekend and illustrate to the world what Houlton has to offer. It’s been a lot of fun.”
Both filmmakers have recently released award winning films, including Weinberger’s “The Last Hurrah, and van Kalken’s “The Salt of the Earth.”
Weinberger started her film career in comedy, eventually moving into more narrative work. And van Kalken was a writer and producer of a kids science show. They are life partners and this is the first film they will be making together.
Because the Houlton eclipse festivities are gearing up this weekend, the filmmaking team has help coming this weekend to capture all that happens.
“We definitely will pick up on the atmosphere of how busy it’s getting and definitely interview people from away who are just visiting,” Weinberger said.
Their plan is to have the film edited this summer and ready for film festivals in the fall and they will certainly have a cast and crew screening at the Temple Theater, Weinberger said.
“A lot of our motivation is to make sure this is a great film and a great depiction of everything we have enjoyed here and for the people here, van Kalken said.
