Local actors part of Bruce County Heritage Documentary Project

A half-dozen actors with the Kincardine Theatre Guild are taking part in the Bruce County Heritage Documentary Project for TVO.

The not-for-profit endeavour is a partnership among the Living History Multimedia Association, the Bruce County Historical Society, and Bruce County. The project has received funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, and partners from the community.

Back in April, a call went out for actors to film various re-enactment scenes throughout Bruce County.

Answering the call, and participating in the various vignettes, are Matt Harvey as a scientist, Andy French as a farmer, Shirley Bieman as a farmer's wife, Fort Papalia as a minister, Jason Geberdt as a father paddling a raft down the Saugeen River, and Amber Rawlings as his wife.

One scene, shot July 29, at an old school house in Bruce Township, depicted a 1957 town hall meeting, prior to a decision on whether to allow the Douglas Point nuclear generating station to build on the Lake Huron shoreline in Bruce Township.

Producer Yvonne Drebert said the company put out the call for actors and had the biggest response ever in Ontario.

“We saw more than 45,000 people reached through our social media, more than 500 likes and 1,300 shares,” she said. “We had lots of press coverage and more than 500 correspondences with potential participants. This resulted in 188 actors committed to the project, with an additional 20 behind-the-scenes folks.”

She said the production company is still searching for male actors between the ages of 20 and 50, and First Nations actors.

Filming began in June, she said, with 23 re-enactment days planned through to October, and one in December.

Drebert said that more than 30 elders, historians, and knowledge-keepers have been interviewed for the project. These interviews have been transcribed, and full interviews along with transcriptions, will go to the Bruce County Museum and Cultural Centre when the project is complete.

Among the notable interviews, she said, were: John Borrows, Vernon Roote, Wilmer Nadjiwon, Ron Gatis, and Bill Fitzgerald.

The documentary component of the project will be distributed free, along with a curriculum companion book, into every school in Bruce County, said Drebert. To launch the series, free screenings will be held in locations throughout the county in late 2017 and 2018.

For more information about the project, check the website at: visualheritage.ca or the Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/BruceCounty