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| 'Mom' featured in first Historical Society film |
By: By MEGAN PROFT
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Documenting Northfield history isn't just filing old papers anymore.
The Northfield Historical Society has sponsored the creation of its first-ever original film titled "To Our Boys in Service: Northfield and World War II." The film will debut in a free public showing at 7 p.m. May 9 in St. Olaf's Viking Theater.
The documentary was produced by St. Olaf College students Laural Brentner, a junior studying film, and Krista Siems, a senior studying history and American studies. The film is the culmination of a semester's worth of research in the NHS internship. They spent approximately six hours per week on the project.
"I wanted especially a history major and a film major," NHS Director Hayes Scriven said. Once he had his interns, he assigned them the task of making a documentary about World War II and how if affected Northfield, Scriven said, and that was all the direction he gave them.
Brentner and Siems started by rifling through old newspapers to see what the local news revolved around during the war. It didn't take them long to narrow in on a focus for the film.
While "To Our Boys in Service" is about Northfield and the war as a whole, it mainly focuses in on the late Northfield writer Nellie "Mom" Phillips, who dedicated her time to letter writing to the soldiers abroad. As Brentner and Siems did their research, they agreed it was undeniable that Mom's liaison work was something extraordinary.
"We think her story is so amazing," Brentner said. "She was genuinely concerned about everyone in the war."
After they chose "Mom" as the film's central piece, Brentner and Siems tracked her column in the newspaper and read actual correspondences between her and the soldiers. The letters included the local news in Northfield and words of encouragement, Brentner said.
"In her letters, you could this (see) this deep love for everyone from Northfield," Siems added.
Another aspect of Mom's work that intrigued Brentner and Siems was that her letters were handwritten and personal. She took the time to respond to every letter by hand with news of home, Siems said. Photographs and the readings of several letters are in the film.
Because Mom gained both local and national recognition for her work and several residents still remember her, Scriven said another piece of the film he wanted was oral history. He said by filming interviews, oral history could be preserved.
"To Our Boys in Service" includes interview footage conducted by Brentner and Siems with Northfielders Maggie Lee, Margaret Spear, Bill Cupp and Don Kimber - all of whom provide various views and memories.
"When you just read ... you don't get the sense of how it truly touched (people) personally," Siems said.
Scriven anticipates NHS will use film as a means for presenting and preserving local history in the future.
"For us, it's a different way of documenting Northfield history," Scriven said. He hopes this film will be used for other public showings or in classrooms.
- Megan Proft can be reached at mproft@northfieldnews.com or 645-1100. |
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