County’s historical video footage in danger
To the editor:
With the closure of the media studies program at Caribou Technology Center, I would like to bring to the attention of your readers the historic treasure contained within the Viking Video Productions archive.
The footage is irreplaceable and reflects a unique 15-year window in time during one of America’s most historic periods. It also provides a view of ordinary life — video sometimes valued more in hindsight than the dramatic moments in history, which are documented in greater detail.
Two of the productions have been considered so important historically that they have been requested to be housed in the nation’s most secure archive — the Library of Congress.
Just a few of the irreplaceable items in the collection are:
• Interviews with World War II era German prisoners of war held in Houlton from 1942–44 and their former captors (three are now gone.)
• Conversations with older citizens in Maine’s Swedish Colony speaking Swedish (several are now gone.)
• The first biathlon ever held in northern Maine (Fort Kent.)
• Interviews with citizens from all over central Aroostook about their views on 9/ll in the days just following the event.
• Footage of Stan’s Grocery store at Madawaska Lake shot over the course of a year when Stan’s father died.
• The only footage of a Maine gubernatorial trade mission to Europe
• Footage of the retracing of the George Weymouth Expedition from 1605 aboard Schooner Bowdoin (made in conjunction with MSSM).
• Footage of Aroostook State Park over the course of a year including many community events.
This raw footage, only 10 percent of which was used in the documentaries, was shot to produce award winning films which have been shown on Maine PBS such as “Stan’s – A Jewel In The Crown of Maine,” “The Coming Of The Swedes,” “Don’t Fence Me In,” “Biathlon Comes To The County,” and “A Bowdoin Expedition.”
RSU 39 Superintendent and School Board members have been given the wonderful offer to share this history with the rest of The County, the state, and the region by depositing this rich collection in the non-profit film archives, Northeast Historic Film. Northeast Historic Film is a regional film archives located in Bucksport with a state of the art conservation facility and 25 years of experience preserving and making moving images accessible to the public.
Northeast Historic Film has offered to provide RSU 39 with generous royalties on the sale of the stock footage and films in the Viking Video Collection at a time when the school system is strapped for cash. The school system would always have access to the materials and/or could sell the videos themselves.. In addition to climate-controlled storage conditions, Northeast Historic Film has a transfer facility for creating access copies and a research center for visitors and researchers.
The Viking Video Collection would be held alongside existing collections representing Caribou and Aroostook County such as the Phil Peterson Collection, WAGM Collection, the Maine National Guard Collection donated by Captain Mosher and the Michael Bernard Collection which is featured in “Aroostook County— 1920s”, one of the most successful titles Northeast Historic Films sells.
I beseech RSU 39 superintendent and school board members to take up this wonderful offer to put Caribou on the map for its generosity and foresight. The alternatives – to relegate this historic collection to a closet, or dumpster, would be a terrible loss of history. Thank you for your consideration.
Viking Video Productions
