"Turning Pages" - Talking about their generation
From left, "Turning Pages" producer Bob Van Degna, Niskayunu High School alumni Pat (Heckman) Schumann and Leiah Bowden, and producers Donald Wilcock and Anna VA Polesny (Bartoli) take questions from the audience following the recent screening of their film at the Northampton Senior Center. Photo courtesy of Renato Bartoli
By Debbie Gardner
debbieg@thereminder.com
Is your life what you thought it would be when you put on your cap and gown at that long-ago high school graduation? Did you get to live your dreams, or did your hopes and expectations change as you moved from the cocoon of family and school predictability into the real world. How much were you influenced by what was happening in the world around you?
"Turning Pages" will be screened on Oct. 13 as part of the Northampton International Film Festival. Visit nohoiff.org for directions, screening times and ticket information.
Every high school class can ask themselves the same questions, but for those who graduated in the early 1960s – and are now marking their 50th graduation anniversaries – these questions can seem profound.
They were the generation that first went to Vietnam, that first protested that same war, that began the hippie culture, that experienced the shift in women's roles and civil rights, that witnessed the birth of rock 'n' roll.
The voices – and life stories – of 25 members of this generation have been captured in a documentary film, "Turning Pages," which screened locally to rave reviews in front of an audience of 150 at the Northampton Senior Center in early August.
"I think we were kind of like a breakthrough generation," said Pat Savoie in her interview, which is included in the film. "We definitely broke out of the mold of our parents – they had roles they had to play. We really went out and defined society."
To view a three minute trailer for "Turning Pages, visit Van Degna's personal website at www.bobvandegna.com and click on "Turning Pages" in the menu.
The project of three reunion committee volunteers and first-time filmmakers – Bob Van Degna of Cave Creek, Ariz, Don Wilcock of Scotia, N.Y., and Anna VA Polesny (Bartoli) of Northampton, Mass., "Turning Pages" was initially conceived as part of the entertainment for the 50th anniversary of their class of 1962's graduation from Niskayuna High School in Schenectady. N,Y.
"My original idea was to go around and photograph [classmates]," Van Degna said. "That morphed into 'why not take the camera around and also take video'."
But as the novice documentarians began to think about the times they grew up in, and how much had happened – "Vietnam was going to be a big one, the role of women was going to be a big one, – those were the things you could see changing," Van Degna noted – it quickly became evident the project had the potential to become something more.
"The era we lived in was so dramatic and so changing and we were all so influenced by it that if we dovetailed the personal lives with the historical events that were going on that we could have a serious documentary," Polesny said. The nearly 700 people who have seen the film, both as part of Niskayuna's reunion, in showings in Scottsdale, Ariz., and in numerous private home screenings, seem to agree.
"I don't know anybody who's seen it who hasn't been blown away," said Wilcock.
Not just a documentarian but also a "Turning Pages" interviewee, Wilcock recounted his own Vietnam experience for the film – which included getting the order to report for his pre-draft physical during senior week at Tufts University. As an activated Army Reservist serving incountry, he convinced the Army's newspaper "The Army Reporter" to let him remove famed conductor Skitch Henderson's music column from the version he was editing for his post and let him write about emerging bands such as The Doors and The Rolling Stones. That experience was the beginning of a lifelong career as a freelance music writer. Though none of the three filmmakers were friendly – or for that matter even knew each other – in high school, Polesny said they found the project drew them together like old friends. Van Degna, who had had a very lucrative career in the financial industry, had the resources to support the project and was willing to run the camera. Wilcox, who came to the project with 45 years of interviewing experience under his belt, was tapped to chat up the classmates. Polesny took over the research arm of the project, locating classmates willing to talk to them, scheduling the interviews and setting up the travel itinerary for the trio.
Some of the interviews, Polesny felt, should be the classic "where are they now" type of stories about important members of the class – the class president, the class "princesses," the top students, the high school sweethearts. For example, her research turned up one of the brightest and most conservative class members, Jim Beggs, who, instead of following his original path to become an English teacher, ended up a rock musician. The trio not only interviewed him about his life, they commissioned him to compose a song for the film, titled "We Still Have Dreams."
Other interviews, she felt should have significance to the era, such as the piece about classmate Bob Cragin, who died on the battlefield in Vietnam.
"One of our classmates was a librarian and researcher, and after some research she was able to find information about the battle and then [locate] one of the people who was there when Bob was wounded," Polesny said. "We interviewed a comrade who was there [when Bob got hit]. It was powerful and moving."
Among the 25 interviewees there were also several who expressed various levels of anti-war sentiments, including Leiah Bowden (formerly Roberta Rubin) who readily admitted, "When I was a hippie, I was against the war" during her interview. Others talked about the change in morals in the 1960s, including things such as the acceptance of divorce, open marriages and the liberation of women.
"The shift started when we were in college," Polesny noted.
Polesny also looked for a gay classmate willing to talk about his or her life experience during the past 50 years.
"In those times, we didn't know what gay was," Polesny said, referring to the class of '62's growing-up years.
Pat (Heckman) Schumann, a classmate who now lives not far from Polsney in the Florence section of Northampton, shared during her interview that her first husband suddenly announced he was bisexual. She also talked candidly about struggling with infertility.
"She just opened up and shared that, and how courageous," Polesny said.
Schumann told PRIME that she didn't expect the film would be seen by so many when she did the interview.
"I didn't consider myself a subject, I considered myself a classmate, a friend. I'm not 22 anymore. I'm 68 (at the time) and I wanted to let people know who I am and maybe help others out through my experiences," she said, adding that she now feels "Maybe even future generations could learn from us as well."
Van Degna said when the film aired at the reunion, a classmate came up to him and said she was a gay woman, and wished she had taken part in the interviews.
In all Polesny, Van Degna and Wilcock recorded more than 30 hours of interviews, crisscrossing the country to talk with fellow classmates in nine states and 24 separate locations during a four-month period.
The final film is a mere 86 minutes of that footage.
"I have more of an appreciation for filmmakers now, and what they go through, said Van Degna, who did the lion's share of the editing.
Wilcock called the work he did with his classmates "the most exciting interviews of my career.
"All these people have found their bliss," he said. "Everybody that we interviewed in some way or other found an niche for themselves that was totally outside the box for somebody with our background and that was what shocked me the most."
Polesny said that she was taken aback by how open, how candid, and how welcoming all their former classmates were to the trio after 50 years.
"Everyone thanked us because it gave him or her a chance to reflect," she said. "People spent hours thinking about their lives and what was the meaning.
"I myself spent a lot of time reflecting," she added.
And the film is beginning to take on a life beyond the reunion. Polesny said she had just heard "Turning Pages" has been accepted for screening in the Northampton International Film Festival. She also said that a friend of hers who works in public broadcasting had taken a copy of the DVD. Another acquaintance, with connections to Emmy and Peabody-winning documentary film producer Jeff Tuchman, also took a copy.
"My hope for the film," Van Degna said, "I hope a lot of people get to see it and enjoy it."
To view a three minute trailer for "Turning Pages, visit Van Degna's personal website at
www.bobvandegna.com and click on "Turning Pages" in the menu.
