Behind The Hedgerow Teaser Trailer from Harry Cawthorn on Vimeo.
NEWPORT, R.I. – “We tell people stories, first,” says G. Wayne Miller, writer of the upcoming documentary Behind the Hedgerow.
The film, which tells the story of Newport’s high society through the eyes of the late Eileen Slocum, won’t be ready until sometime next summer, but that didn’t stop a group of about 40 people to turn out for a trailer screening of the project at the Redwood Library on Thursday.
Dressed in khakies and a short sleeved checkered button-down, Miller briefly recounted his encounters with Slocum, who was often (and rightfully) referred to as the grand doyenne of the Bellevue Avenue set. Armed with anywhere from 10-15 hours worth of audio recordings compiled through his extensive six-part series on Newport society, Slocum, Miller explains serves as the narrator to her own life.
The wife of a diplomat who served in Egypt and Germany, among other places, and a descendant of the Brown family of Brown University, Eileen Slocum passed away last August at the age of 92.
Filmmaker David Bettencourt, whose 2007Â You Must Be This Tall, The Story of Rocky Point serves as the film’s director and by his own admission knew very little about Slocum prior to filming.
“When Wayne dropped off those recordings, that’s when I knew we had something,” he said.
Part history and part contemporary look, Hedgerow will utilize rare footage, photographs, archives and on-camera interviews with some of Newport’s most respected society figures.
It is the second title from Miller and Bettencourt’s non-profit Eagle Peak Media production company. On The Lake, Eagle Peak’s first title, which tells the true story of the tuberculosis epidemic of the 1900s through the lives of those that were infected premiered in February to critical acclaim.
Funding for Behind the Hedgerow was provided, in part, by a grant from the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities. The Redwood Library is one of the organizations which is cooperating with the effort.
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Newport, RI
