Peter Southwick’s “Rt 27 South” Series Comes to the Big Screen at Harbor Theater

One show only! On Sunday September 21, at 6 p.m., join us to celebrate some of our community’s interesting inhabitants with an exclusive free screening of Peter Southwick’s video series featuring local Boothbay area residents. Known as “Rt 27 South,” the series, some episodes of which have been shown on BRTV in recent years, has recently been compiled for the big screen by Harbor Theater’s Technical Director Robert Jordan.

Following a career as an Associated Press photographer and Boston Globe Director of Photography, photojournalist Southwick began the series in 2014 while on sabbatical from Boston University where he taught visual journalism. At that point he had been visiting Boothbay Harbor for over 35 years and found much to love and fascinate him about local life. Early subjects of “Rt 27 South” were Bet Finocchiaro, I.J. Pinkham, Danny Beal, and Cathy Sherrill. His final collection, created throughout 2014 - 2015 included multimedia profiles of 18 locals, each approximately 6 to 9 minutes in length. Now, all of those can be seen in one film.

Because of his love for traditional black & white photography, Southwick decided to create the series in black & white video, using many photographs in addition to interviews he conducted. The only exception was his piece featuring artist June Elderkin whose paintings and personality were just too colorful to translate logically into black & white.

In January 2015, Boothbay Register staff reporter Suzi Thayer wrote a feature article on Southwick and his series “Boston University Visual Journalist Profiles Boothbay Region Locals.” Thayer’s profile of Southwick included a revealing conversation that gives insight into his interest in creating the project.

In August this year, with the permission and assistance of Southwick and his wife Jean Rosenberg, Jordan compiled the videos from the collection into the single film being shown on September 21st. Unfortunately, in the years since the interviews were first conducted, several of the featured locals have passed away, then on Monday this week Peter died, making the significance of these pieces of local history even more poignant. Local Ryan Leighton will introduce the "Rt 27 South series," and will be joined briefly via Facetime by Peter's wife Jean Rosenberg.

The complete list of interviews included in the film is, in order of appearance: Bet Finocchiaro, Arthur Webster, June Elderkin, Danny Beal, Peter and Nancy Gilchrist, Clive Farrin, Lee Stoddard, Stephanie Hawke, Mark and Dianne Gimbel, Ramona Gaudette, Sue Burge, Sarah Foulger, Lesley Blethen, Nick Upham, Ryan Leighton, Cathy Sherrill, Elizabeth Evans, I.J. Pinkham.

The September 21st 6 p.m. screening of Southwick’s “Rt 27 South” is free and open to the public. What a great opportunity to see friends, family, and neighbors on the big screen and socialize with each other while celebrating our community at the theater!

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