Broadcast Debut for “ONCE MORE TO THE CABIN” Set for February 2010
The Maine-made documentary will air on the Maine Public Broadcasting Network on Feb. 21 and 27
— Dec. 30, 2009 —
“Once More to the Cabin,” a 28-minute documentary shot in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, will receive its broadcast debut on the Maine Public Broadcasting Network on Feb. 21 at 10:30 p.m. The film will be broadcast again on Feb. 27 at 11:30 a.m.
Maine filmmakers Jim and Tom Isler tell the touching story of their grandmother, Barbara Luccock, a 93-year-old widow, as she returns to Boothbay Harbor, the place where she fell in love, for the first time since the death of her husband, Robert. Barbara and Robert met in Boothbay Harbor in 1945 and together they returned every summer for the rest of their lives. In order for Barbara to say her final goodbye, she must travel back to her log cabin overlooking the harbor and confront a lifetime of memories.
A tale of love, loss and the ritual of summer in Maine, the film reconstructs the chance encounter and courtship of the Luccocks by mixing present-day footage with interviews shot in 1997 with both Barbara and Robert. More than a tale of an individual romance, the documentary examines issues of aging and memory in a summer community and features stunning footage of the Maine coast filmed over the course of a year in 2007 and 2008.
The film premiered at the Maine International Film Festival in July 2009. The film also was an official selection at the Woods Hole Film Festival (July 2009), the New Hampshire Film Festival (September 2009) and the Long Island (N.Y.) Film Festival (October 2009).
The Isler brothers grew up in Falmouth, Maine, and won several awards at the Maine Student Film and Video Festival while attending Falmouth Middle School and Falmouth High School. The Isler brothers premiered their first feature documentary, FESTIVAL, a film about the Maine Drama Festival, at the Maine International Film Festival in 2005. For a complete filmography of Isler brothers films, including awards and nominations, click here.
The log cabin, part of the Sprucewold colony in Boothbay Harbor, was likely built in the late 1920s or 1930s, and came into the Luccock-Isler family in the late 1940s, purchased by Robert Luccock's father, Halford Luccock. Both Halford and Robert Luccock were ministers and preached at various churches in Boothbay and on Squirrel Island in the summertime.
Barbara and Robert Luccock, who had vacationed in Boothbay Harbor and York, Maine, for decades while living in Connecticut and Massachusetts, moved to OceanView at Falmouth, a retirement community in Falmouth, Maine, in 2002, to be closer to their daughter, Susan Isler, and her husband, Robert Isler — both of whom appear in the documentary. The Luccocks lived at OceanView for the rest of their lives. Robert died in January 2007, and Barbara followed in December 2008.
For more information about the Maine Public Broadcasting Network, visit www.mpbn.net.
PRAISE FOR “ONCE MORE TO THE CABIN”
“A tear-jerking, heart-felt documentary.”
&mdash The Bar Harbor Times
“By exploring the essence of summer this deceptively quiet film
brings us closer to the essence of life itself. Touching, illuminating and even inspiring.”
— George Howe Colt, author of The Big House: A Century
in the Life of an American Summer Home
“...a testimony to the 61-year marriage of Robert and Barbara Luccock
that extends beyond a family story to speak to a much wider audience
about enduring love, loss and perseverance, and the connection to place
that serves as a metaphor for life and the aging process...”
&mdash The Forecaster
“From proposal to the birth of children to the joys of grandchildren,
the sea-view cabin becomes the lead, silent character in decades of
memories formed on the coast of Maine...The Islers use this backdrop
to portray how, over time, sense of place becomes sense of self.”
— DownEast.com
Download a full press kit for “Once More to the Cabin”.
Browse and download high-resolution film stills and behind-the-scenes photographs.
For more about “Once More to the Cabin,” visit www.gloamingpictures.com/cabin.htm.
About the filmmakers
Jim Isler is a freelance editor of film and television in New York City. He has edited programs for PBS, A&E, VH1, Discovery, and National Geographic, among other networks. Jim has edited two feature documentaries, and, in 2006, he edited an Emmy Award-winning Internet sitcom, Floaters. In 2008, he was nominated for the Best Editing Award at the Wildscreen Festival, a wildlife and environmental film festival in the U.K., for his work on a two-hour film for PBS's NATURE series, “What Females Want/What Males Will Do.”
Tom Isler earned a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies from Yale University, where he studied documentary filmmaking with D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus and for his work in film and journalism was awarded the George A. Schrader, Jr. Prize for excellence in the humanities. Tom began his career as a journalist writing a sports column in the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram beginning at the age of 12, and his writing about the arts has appeared in a number of publications, including The Boston Phoenix (and The Portland Phoenix), The Southampton Press in New York, and the International Documentary Association's Documentary magazine. He has worked as a freelance cameraman for CBS and MSNBC.
About Gloaming Pictures
Gloaming Pictures is an independent producer of documentary film and television, formed by brothers Jim and Tom Isler in 2000. Their first feature documentary, FESTIVAL, about a high school play competition in Maine, premiered at the Maine International Film Festival in 2005. Their next project, “Critical Hours,” a documentary television pilot about inspiring educational programs for kids, premiered at the New York Television Festival in 2006, where it was a finalist for the MSN Artistic Achievement Award, and earned a nomination for Best Documentary at the KIDS FIRST! Film and Video Festival. For more about Gloaming Pictures, visit www.gloamingpictures.com.
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