In her office at Northeast Historic Film, just behind the Alamo Theatre in Bucksport, Brook Ewing Minner has a framed photo of Leslie Knope, the passionately civic-minded protagonist of NBC sitcom “Parks and Recreation,” sitting on a table.
“I think she’s a good inspiration for anyone trying to make a community better,” said Minner, who since the beginning of 2015 has been the executive director of Northeast Historic Film, which preserves and archives for posterity old film, particularly home movies and amateur footage from Maine and New England. “I think everybody should be a little more like her.”
In addition to helming NHF’s operations and staff of six, Minner, an Arizona native who has lived in Maine for the past 15 years, is part of a nascent wave of business owners, creative people and everyday community members trying to revitalize Bucksport. Through the new Main Street Bucksport organization (which is part of the national Main Street America movement) and through her position with NHF and with the Alamo Theatre (which is owned by NHF), Minner has been at the forefront of the initial push to lay the groundwork for a post-mill Bucksport.
The fact that she was applying for and then was offered the job, originally held by NHF founder David Weiss who retired in January 2015, at around the same time that the mill closed was, to her, a sign that she was going in the right direction.
“Pretty shortly after the mill closed I started to see that the closing of the mill was such a serious thing that people jumped into action,” said Minner. “The mill provided so much tax base for the town, that when that left people had to do something. There was no other option. And I think that presents an amazing opportunity.”
Prior to joining NHF, Minner worked at the Blue Hill Public Library and then at the Northeast Harbor Library. Her background in library science translates well to the kind of archiving work that NHF does — as does her love of history.
“I’ve always had a love for hyper local history, like the history of a neighborhood, or a street,” said Minner. “NHF is all about capturing that kind of history, family history and community history, so it’s a very natural thing for me.”
That emphasis on hyper-local community identity extends beyond her work with the archive, into using the Alamo Theatre as a place for more than just movies — though their weekend first-run movies have become the most popular source of entertainment in town, made possible by the 2014 purchase of a digital projector. The Alamo now hosts several Pecha Kucha presentation events per year — including one featuring local makers and artisans, happening at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 3 — as well as performing arts events such as Alamo Superstar and storytelling nights, community events such as candidate forums and workshops, and a variety of rentals.
“We want the Alamo to become that third place — not home, not work, but a community hub,” said Minner. “We’re really lucky that we have a resource like this right here in town.”
Through Main Street Bucksport, which was founded by Minner and her husband, Mark Eastman, as well as Roxanne Jobe and John Paul LaLonde, there’s once again pop-up shops in Bucksport for the month of December, after a successful inaugural run in 2014. The Town Council in October authorized $6,600 to help local artisans and self-employed makers to take over four empty storefronts. The pop-up shops include a number of Maine jewelers, potters, food artisans and other makers, affording Bucksport shoppers the opportunity to buy local this holiday season.
Growing a community in the wake of major change is not easy, and it’s a slow process built on small but important progress, rather than a magic bullet. Minner looks to Maine towns that have successfully reinvented themselves after industry left, like Belfast post-chicken processing plant or Biddeford post-textile mills, as inspirations for what Bucksport could be.
“We have a beautiful waterfront, incredibly affordable housing, we’re really close to both Bangor and Ellsworth, and we have a downtown with a ton of potential,” said Minner. “But we also have our own unique community identity and flavor, that we have to retain as we move forward. That’s the big challenge for any town, keeping its identity.”
