DocFest 2014

Display at the CORE Centre

Both the Historical Society and the Community Archives were proud to sponsor showings at the 2014 Belleville Downtown DocFest and to have a display at the CORE Centre from February 28 to March 2. 

Sharon White and "Celebrating City Hall"

 Sharon White (on behalf of the Archives) and Mary-Lynne Morgan (for the Historical Society) each introduced a film, described our organizations, and showed enthusiasm and support  for the local documentary filmmakers.

Doug Knutson, Aaron Bell and Peter Lockyer
at the panel discussion

At the 4 o'clock Friday screening at the Pinnacle Playhouse, Sharon expressed her pleasure at seeing old photographs from the Community Archives being given a new life and wider exposure in films such as Aaron Bell’s ‘Celebrating City Hall.’

Aaron’s film outlines the history of the Belleville City Hall and commemorates the 25th anniversary of its renovation by visionary local architect and engineer Bill White.  The film can be viewed on the Internet at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcdZoHewYY4


The filmmakers at this session – Aaron Bell (Celebrating City Hall), Doug Knutson (A Hope in Hell) and Peter Lockyer (History Lives Here) – participated in a Q&A afterwards and made very positive comments about the role of the Community Archives in providing historical images for their work.

Mary-Lynne Morgan with two of the many DocFest volunteers

On Saturday at the Pinnacle Playhouse screening room, Mary-Lynne Morgan introduced a local project which is sure to make a return in future years at DocFest. Called 'Quinte at Home: Vintage Home Movies from the Quinte Region',  the project is the brain-child of project curators Brent Kleinsteuber and Amy Bodman. The pair showed "a compilation of vintage home movies in their original formats, documenting aspects of life in the Bay of Quinte Region from the advent of home movies in the 1930's through 1980" (Docfest program). It was fascinating to watch these amateur movies, and equally interesting to see a variety of vintage projectors (for 16mm, 8mm and Super 8 formats) all working so well.

Mary-Lynne explained the HCHS mandate and many activities dedicated to making history come alive. She pointed out how appropriate it was for the Society to sponsor 'Quinte at Home' at Docfest, as the home movies constituted a documentary of life in our area - our own personal history - from military parades to wedding parties..and some very camera-shy children.