KENNEBUNK, Maine — A movie trailer for a documentary being produced about the 1978 unsolved brutal murder of Kennebunk teenager Mary Ellen Tanner is scheduled to be shown 5-7 p.m. Friday at the Nonantum Resort in Kennebunkport.
Excerpts from the film “Girl on the Bridge: The Mary Tanner Story” will be shown, and a presentation about the nonprofit project and the newly formed Mary Tanner Foundation will be made.
Tanner, 18, was last seen alive hitchhiking home from Kennebunkport summer parade festivities on July 7, 1978. Her badly beaten and decomposing body was found two days later in a field across the Kennebunk town line in Lyman. No killer has ever been brought to justice.
After the Friday night showing, film producer and director, Rik O’Neal of Switchback Productions, along with members of the Mary Tanner Foundation and the Tanner family, will be on hand to answer questions from the audience. Light refreshments will be served, and a cash bar will be available.
Admission to the premiere is free and open to the public, though donations in any amount are welcome and will be graciously accepted at the event.
“‘Girl on the Bridge’ is a film about Mary Tanner and the people she left behind in the small town of Kennebunk, where the crime’s deep wound left a dark and painful scar and where suspicion and rumor still roil beneath the surface of everyday life. Her friends, so young then, are grown up now, and they are demanding justice,” O’Neal said.
To date, O’Neal has been funding the project out of his own pocket, and he has contracted acclaimed filmmaker Roger McCord to collaborate with him as well. A future crowdfunding campaign for the film is slated to take place in early 2015, with a start to finish budget for the project estimated to be $125,000.
At this time, $25,000 is needed to continue to fund the initial pre-production phase. O’Neal is quick to point out that “Girl on the Bridge: The Mary Tanner Story” is not a crime drama, it is a fact-based documentary and funding through grants, foundations and private donors will be sought.
“This is all about hope and courage and people prevailing,” he said.
“There are still good people in the world, people who care about justice for Mary,” said Kennebunk native and Mary Tanner Foundation board member Francine Tanguay of the film. “This is Mary’s legacy.”
For information on the movie, call 232-3031, email marytannerstory@gmail.com or visit www.facebook.com/themarytannerstory.
For information about the upcoming event and to RSVP, visit www.facebook.com/events/285583518295547/.