The chemistry between an Aroostook County town and two New York filmmakers charmed a Maine PBS producer, convincing her to add the story of Houlton’s 2024 eclipse celebration to the network’s film series.
Laura Schenck, the executive producer of local productions at Maine Public, screened the award-winning documentary “A Moment in the Sun” last July at the Maine International Film Festival, where it won the prestigious Tourmaline Award for Best Feature Film. The film also won Best Feature Film at the Maine Outdoor Film Festival in Portland.
The 2024 total solar eclipse was a lifetime event and a shared experience that happened here in Maine, said Schenck, who slated the film’s April air dates to coincide with the second anniversary of the April 8, 2024, celestial event.
“I think viewers will not only re-experience the event, but walk away with the feeling of what we already know — Maine is a special place,” she said.
Houlton gained instant global notoriety as the last U.S. stop along the sun’s path of totality and the place forecasters predicted to be one of the best clear-sky viewing locations.
The 78-minute feature documentary film, shot all on location in Aroostook County, explores how this rural community of 6,000 pulled together to welcome nearly 30,000 eclipse chasers, scientists and tourists from around the world.
“A small town like Houlton comes together to overcome the obstacles which could have undone many other less resilient, less collaborative officials, neighbors and businesses,” Schenck said. “It’s an example of a community really coming together.”
The Maine Public Film Series screenings run next week at 1 a.m on Friday, April 3; 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 4; 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 5; and 9 p.m. on Monday, April 6.
The film’s co-directors, Mia Weinberger and Tom van Kalken, focused their lens on a few people: a local astronomer who shared his first eclipse with his late husband in 1997; a civic planner who had been preparing for the eclipse for almost three years; a freshly minted entrepreneur with 800 eclipse-themed T-shirts to sell and a couple who got married right at the moment of totality.
Van Kalken said the film at its core is really about the human stories that take place all around us all the time.
“There’s something incredibly moving about watching a small town of a few thousand people rise to meet the moment and welcome tens of thousands of strangers,” he said.
The Maine Public broadcast, with an estimated viewership of 50,000 people, is a fantastic opportunity for more people to see the film, said van Kalken. So far, it has only been shown at film festivals and this is the documentary’s first foray into the mass media landscape, he said.
“A Moment in the Sun” is also having its own “moment in the sun” right now with screenings next month at film festivals in Wisconsin, Iowa and Australia, van Kalken said.
“We’re in the process of working with a Spanish distributor to broadcast the film in Spain later this year when they have their own eclipse in August,” he said. “We always joke that the film is being played from Maine to Spain.”
The Houlton-based feature-length documentary began a bit by chance when the New York filmmakers started thinking about viewing the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024.
As they explored the swath of American towns cast into total darkness by the moon’s shadow, the filmmaking duo decided to tell the story of Houlton and the eclipse.
“I was watching a video of a Houlton eclipse planning public forum and I was like, ‘I love this town, I love these people and it’s so interesting and cool that it’s the last place to see the eclipse in the country,’” Weinberger said.
And from their first visit to the southeastern Aroostook County town, local Mainers shared their lives, homes and home-cooked meals with the filmmakers.
“We’ve had more home cooked dinners since we came to Houlton than we have ever had in New York,” they said while on location two years ago. “This has turned into a much more personal project because we really connected with the people of Houlton. We really feel this responsibility to tell a good story on behalf of these people.”
Both filmmakers have released other award winning films, including Weinberger’s “The Last Hurrah, and van Kalken’s “The Salt of the Earth.”
Weinberger started her film career in comedy, eventually moving into more narrative work. And van Kalken was a writer and producer of a kids science show. They are life partners and this is the first film they directed together.
Last September, there was a local premiere at Houlton’s Temple Theater where they rolled out the red carpet for the filmmakers and the community.
And once again, the town has pulled together for the film as 18 local businesses are underwriting its PBS run, van Kalken said.
“We’re super appreciative of everyone that has gotten behind the film and continue to feel the love from Houlton even two years after the eclipse,” he said. “We’re really excited to have them officially attached to the film now. It really does feel like a big family.”