Aroostook Republican photo/Natalie De La Garza
Locally filmed in Van Buren, “Beneath the Harvest Sky” is currently playing at the Caribou Theater.
By Natalie De La Garza
Staff Writer
VAN BUREN — The independent film “Beneath the Harvest Sky,” directed by Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly, was an official selection at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival and the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival — and it was filmed right here in The County.
While the film is garnering rave reviews from moviegoers, Aroostook County now garners rave reviews from its production crew and its cast.
“We fell in love with The County,” Pullapilly said on Monday. “The landscape is beautiful, and that was the first thing that attracted us to come up here to make the movie.”
What first connected the directors with the region was actually a photo taken by local photographer Paul Cyr of the potato harvest.
Gaudet stumbled across the image after his brother reposted it on Facebook back in 2010, and that inspired Gaudet and Pullapilly to travel up to Aroostook to see what it was all about.
“It was the photos that Paul Cyr took that lured us up to The County,” Gaudet said.
Driving around the region, something changed when they got to Van Buren.
“Something felt so right about this town, it was right on the border and so many things just grabbed us; we fell in love with the people, their work ethic and all these things came through that were really appealing,” Gaudet described. Conveying that on the screen, they said, it was like northern Maine and Van Buren were other characters in the film.
Gaudet and Pullapilly are known for their documentary, “The Way We Get By,” but when they moved back to Maine it was to tell a coming-of-age story in a potato harvest of Van Buren.
“Once we got up into The County and saw how beautiful it was, the biggest question was how do people actually survive up here — what do they do (for a living)?” Pullapilly said. They found hard-working, honest farm families, like the LaJoies of Van Buren, but they also found the other, less-honest ways people make a living.
“It was really in the research and talking with (local residents) that prescription drug smuggling and that angle became part of the story,” Gaudet said.
The directors asked a lot of questions in The County, and the answers they received reflected a lot of good — but also the bad.
“As documentary film makers, we couldn’t just ignore the fact that something had such an influence,” Pullapilly said.
“Like any rural town, there are good things and bad things, and people who are just amazing people that find honest ways of making a living … and then there’s that element of people trying to survive in these rural areas where there aren’t as many opportunities,” Gaudet explained. “We wanted to be true to that and honor that — and the area to us was so special on camera, we did want it to feel like another character in the movie.”
Telling a story in Van Buren came with its own set of challenges and strength; Gaudet and Pullapilly described how one challenge was simply the logistics of getting the cast and crew up to northern Maine — and then finding a place for everyone to stay, which turned out to be the Christian Life Center in Frenchville,
“Sometimes it’s hard to get people to leave the city, and we wanted to find the right crew and cast to come up here for this journey,” Pullapilly explained.
“Everyone was ‘off the grid’ together, half of their cell phones didn’t work … and we all really bonded and became this family,” she added. “Our cast and crew, everyone bought into a ‘summer camp’ atmosphere up there, and they really championed it. All of them have fallen in love with Maine now, and they love Aroostook County.”
Filming locally meant eating at the local restaurants, shopping at the local stores and talking with the local folks all the while.
“It was a great experience for everyone involved … and to see them mix with people in northern Maine and how everyone got along — actors and potato farmers and everyone else involved just clicked,” Pullapilly said.
Van Buren’s Nicholas LaJoie, 18, comes from a long history of family farming — and his own history of filmmaking. But when Gaudet and Pullapilly came to shoot a movie in his hometown, LaJoie found an unexpected job when he became a full-time production assistant to the film.
“I knew very little about how an actual film crew operated behind the scenes, so I knew I had to go into it with an open mind and be ready to do what was required of me,” he said on Monday.
LaJoie credits Gaudet, Pullapilly and their crew for being very welcoming and helpful while he adjusted to the new job.
“Ultimately, I felt I learned more than I would in an actual film school, and I’m grateful for the experience” he said. “In short, the process was even better and more valuable that I could have expected.”
As Gaudet and Pullapilly have been attending the movie’s openings across Maine — in places like Bar Harbor and Bangor — they’re surprised to find how many folks are willing to travel from Aroostook County just to watch the film.
“People from up north were really excited and wanted to see this film succeed,” Pullapilly said.
For LaJoie, sitting in a theater watching his friends, his hometown, and his own work projected before his eyes on the big screen, “It’s a bit surreal,” he said.
“I was lucky enough to attend the very first premier of the film at the Toronto International Film Festival last September,” he described. “My family and I were able to meet up with the members of the cast and crew and enjoy a really exciting — and much anticipated — premier!”
“I couldn’t help but grin each time a good friend of mine appeared on the screen,” he added.
Part of LaJoie’s job was to find extras for the film, and it gave him a great feeling of accomplishment to see his friends “make the cut.”
“It was really great to see the beautiful scenery of The County and our farm through the camera lens, and it was neat to know that I had actually grown up working the farm jobs that were depicted in the film,” LaJoie added.
Displaying authentic Mainers in the film — without that exaggerated Down East accent that frequently gets butchered on the silver screen — was one of Gaudet and Pullapilly’s goals.
“The accents are another thing that’s so unique to the area,” Pullapilly explained. Their actors spent time learning to speak with a local accent and if they couldn’t perfect it — they spoke without it.
“Quite a few people from northern Maine and Van Buren have seen the film and told us ‘You really did capture what it’s like up here, and you should be proud that you were so true to the area,’” Gaudet said, adding that the two main characters, playing 17-year-old boys, worked very hard to be authentic to northern Maine.
“We’ve heard ‘those kids are from The County through and through,’” Gaudet said, “It’s a movie, you can only get so close, but we feel like we did our best in trying to be authentic to northern Maine.”
Gaudet and Pullapilly have received very positive reviews from the festivals and premiers they’ve attended; locally, LaJoie admits he’s a bit biased.
“But I’ve done my best to examine it like I would any other film — so here it goes,” he said. “I think it’s excellent.”
“With each viewing, I enjoy it more and more. The acting and soundtrack are phenomenal, but I think my favorite part would have to be the cinematography. The shot composition helped tell the story in a very artistic and aesthetically pleasing way,” LaJoie described. “And of course, the story is raw, emotion, and very original, which really helps make it a unique film.”
“If you’re from The County, I think it’s critical to go in with an open mind and remember that it is a movie,” he stressed. “ All in all, this is my first feature I’ve ever worked on, and it will always mean a lot to me — I’m proud to say I have worked on this film.”
LaJoie also commented that Gaudet and Pullapilly gave special thanks in the credits to the late Normand LaJoie, “which was a very touching and special moment for my whole family,” he said. ‘I’m very proud of that credit!”
Gaudet and Pullapilly had many thanks to express locally, for Aroostook County and to the LaJoies.
“Their family, we think, is the greatest family we’ve ever met,” Gaudet said,” we couldn’t pull off everything that we did up there without their help and support.”
“We’re so proud of how the movie came out, and we couldn’t have made the movie without the support of the people in Maine and Aroostook County,” Pullapilly said. “They opened their doors to us and we’re so grateful for the people in The County for doing that.”
Interestingly enough, it was only after the film was made that Gaudet found out that his ancestry brings him right back to the Acadian families of northern Maine.
“I had this crazy tie to French Acadian culture and never knew it through three years of making this movie in French Acadian culture,” he said with a recognizable smile in his voice.
Additional information about “Beneath the Harvest Sky” can be found by visiting www.beneaththeharvestsky.com.
