The Mill River

2023, 43 minutes, color & b/w


The Mill River winds down the hills of western Massachusetts and into the Connecticut River just south of Northampton. Though only 13.5 miles long, it has played an outsized role in the economic, cultural, and recreational history of this region.

Native inhabitants and, later, European settlers diverted the river to irrigate their crops, graze their cattle, and turn their mills. But it also flooded their lands and villages, and–-thanks to the mills–-polluted them. By the mid-1800s, the river powered more than 70 mills, but a dam disaster in 1874 wiped nearly all of them out. After the great flood of 1936, the river was re-routed out of downtown Northampton. Today, cleaned of pollutants, it is a popular destination for swimmers, kayakers, canoers, hikers, and dog walkers.

“The Mill River” follows the river as it flows through the region and through history into today. 


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The Gilded Cage: Northampton's Last Water-Powered Elevator

2019, 60 minutes, color & b/w
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Northampton's Masonic Block, 25 Main Street, which opened in 1898, featured an ornate water-powered elevator. This came to an end in 2017, when the elevator was decommissioned. To preserve this fascinating bit of Northampton's history, documentary filmmaker Stan Sherer interviewed former operators and the repair service person who maintained it from the mid-1980s until the end.  We learn how elevators work and why they matter, and what this one meant to the people and the City of Northampton.

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The Brush Shop

2018, 65 minutes, color & b/w
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In the early 1850s, Florence, Massachusetts resident Alfred P. Critchlow experimented with a new substance he called the Florence Compound—a natural thermoplastic made from shellac, wood fibers and a coloring agent. By 1854, A. P. Critchlow and Company was manufacturing buttons and its most successful product, daguerreotype cases made of this material.  As the company's name changed, first to Littlefield, Parsons and Company and then to the Florence Manufacturing Company when it entered the brush-making business in 1866, its role in Northampton's economy grew. By 1885 the company produced the first commercially successful toothbrush and renamed the business the Pro-Phy-Lac-Tic Brush Company in 1924 after this best-selling product. The Pro Brush Company, as it was called, diversified in the next decades, manufacturing a vast array of plastic products from tableware to top-secret atomic bomb parts for the Manhattan Project. It closed in 2007.
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Pearl Primus

"Omowale"

Child Returned Home


2020, 61 minutes, color & b/w

 

 

Pearl Primus leaped into the dance scene in 1943 with stunning works that incorporated social and racial protest into their dance aesthetic. In this film director Stan Sherer offers an intimate perspective on her life and explores her influences on dance and culture in the United States and in Europe, Israel, the Caribbean, Africa and beyond.

Primarily using materials collected by Primus's biographers Peggy and Murray Schwartz, the film contains photos and rare footage of Primus dancing and teaching throughout the world: on an African field, at Paul Robeson’s 40th birthday party and in performance, working with the Watusi dancers of Rwanda, and much more. Primus is celebrated for introducing a repertory of African dances in the United States. You'll see modern dance/protest pieces as well as African rituals that Primus brilliantly transposed to the concert stage, including her signature piece “Fanga” and her husband Percival Borde dancing “Impinyuza.” Renowned drummers Alphonse Cimber, John (“Tunisi”) Davis and Onwin Borde, also make an appearance. The film also includes excerpts of the Schwartzes' interviews with Joe Nash and Donald Washington.




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The Forbes Library

2021, 32 minutes, color & b/w

A documentary about the history of Forbes Library. I made this film in my admiration and appreciation for the enormous contributions the library has made to our cultural and intellectual lives, as well as our general well-being. I wanted to recognize the hard work and dedication of the staff of the library and point out some of the remarkable programs that have made this library much more than a lender of books and media.

Using historic and contemporary photos as well as interviews with staff, the film weaves together the 125 year history of the library, paying tribute to its architectural beauty, its philanthropic roots, its dedicated staff, and its evolving role in the community. “This film honors the library and will be of interest to longtime patrons as well as those who want to learn more about the library,” said Lisa Downing, director of the library.

 
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Moving the Shepherd Barn

2022, 9 minutes, color

On November 5, 2022, Historic Northampton organized a community event to move the historic Shepherd Barn so that they can install a new foundation beneath it to preserve the structure long-term. By the summer of 2023, the restored barn will be an exhibit and performance space placed back onto its original footprint.

Timber framer Alicia Spence directed volunteers to slowly and carefully slide the barn 35 feet off its footprint. With four ropes and ten people per rope, the volunteers pulled the barn along a specially made track.

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