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De Rochemont Film Festival – “Louis in the Living Room”
By scottcampbell | October 15, 2009
I like to say that Academy Award-winning film director and producer Louis de Rochemont was Newington’s one and only famous person. Louis lived in Newington from 1940 through the mid ’70s and is best-known for his “March of Time” newsreels as well as his reality-based feature films, which earned him the title “father of the docudrama.” Since taking over directorship here at the Newington library, I’ve served on the de Rochemont committee of the Newington Historical Society and worked to acquire as much of de Rochemont’s work as I can for the library; today, our “LdR Special Collection” includes several of his films on VHS (and DVD when available) as well as various memorabilia.
To help folks discover or rediscover his work, we screened Lost Boundaries last fall for a packed house at the Old Town Hall. This year, we’re presenting three of his films in a more intimate venue — his own living room! You see, the old de Rochemont house has been renovated and is now the home of Whole Life Health, a group of health care practitioners providing primary care as well as chiropractic, homeopathy, massage, etc. The living room, now the Whole Life main lobby, is where Louis screened his films for family and friends, so this is particularly apropos.
October 15: Lost Boundaries (1949) The fascinating true story of a light-skinned African-American doctor and his family who lived (and “passed” as white) in Keene, NH. Stars Mel Ferrer.
November 12: House on 92nd Street (1945) Based on FBI’s real-life Duquesne Spy Ring saga of 1941, the largest convicted espionage case in U.S. history. Oscar Winner for best original story.
December 7: 13 Rue Madeleine (1947) Spy chief Bob Sharkey finds out one of his agents-in-training is actually a Nazi double agent. Stars James Cagney.
All shows are free and start at 7:00 pm. As an added bonus, we’ll be showing snippets of de Rochemont’s March of Time newsreels as previews, just as they preceded feature films in theaters years ago. Hope to see you there!
(Want to know more about Louis de Rochemont? Local historian J. Dennis Robinson is an expert; click here for more background.)
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