Town Hall To Host Former Resident, Film Maker In Early April

By John Voket

Former Newtown resident and film maker Harvey Hubbell V vividly recalls the first time he faced the possibility he was a little different than his peers.

“In 1966, when I was 6 years old in first grade, at Hawley Elementary School, I remember my teachers having a private meeting about me. ‘He can barely write his first name,’ said Mrs B. ‘I noticed he doesn’t know how to hold his pencil,’ said Mrs W. They didn’t know I was listening, or maybe they did, and didn’t care. But I did hear them,” he said.

That recollection, which Mr Hubbell details on his production company’s website, inspired his self-described “mission to raise awareness on the topic, and to help dyslexics to get the education they need by offering the movie as a tool for advocates who work to get laws changed.”

That tool is Mr Hubbell’s latest project, Dislecksia: The Movie, which may get one of its initial public airings right here in Newtown in early April.

Last week the Board of Selectmen voted unanimously to allocate $10,000 to the Newtown Cultural Arts Commission to host a one-day Connecticut Film Festival (CFF) event at Edmond Town Hall. According to Film Festival Executive Director Tom Carruthers, the centerpiece of a daylong, multi-film program will be several screenings of Dislecksia: The Movie, a prime-time panel discussion featuring the filmmaker, and other authorities speaking on the learning disability, as well as a fundraising reception.

Mr Carruthers, who was on hand with several cultural commissioners at the selectmen’s meeting Monday, told The Newtown Bee he is targeting either the first or second Saturday in April for the event. During questioning by selectmen, Mr Carruthers said he expects this Newtown stop on the traveling schedule of CFF will attract many people to town who have special interest in this film and the learning disability it exposes.

“I expect it will also draw representatives from the film industry,” Mr Carruthers told selectmen.

Under questioning about the anticipated financial return, Mr Carruthers could only cite the success of six days of CFF activities held in Danbury in 2008. He said preliminary estimates indicate the festival brought $1.3 million in additional financial return to the greater Danbury region.

Based on his estimated projection of attendance, Mr Carruthers said the activities could end up generating some revenue directly back to the town, and its cultural commission.

On his website, CapturedTimeProductions.com, Mr Hubbell is described as an “itinerant filmmaker.”

“He has shot from the high-rise roofs of Warsaw to the banana boats of Peru. His documentaries have won more than 50 film and video festival awards, including four Emmys. He wrote and directed the multi-award-winning comic documentary Electronic Road Film, which received an Emmy for Outstanding Entertainment Program,” the bio states.

In addition, Loop Dreams, Mr Hubbel’s first feature-length documentary, won the Gold World Medal for Comedy at The New York Festivals and three Emmys for Outstanding Entertainment Program, Individual Achievement for Directing, and Program Writing.

The site states that to support his documentary habit Mr Hubbell sometimes works on feature films, including a turn as Columbia Pictures’ community liaison for Mr Deeds, shot on location in New Milford. He shares a 80-acre Avid-equipped farm in Litchfield with his wife, Andie Haas Hubbell, the 2001 Connecticut Filmmaker of the Year, and their 10-year-old daughter, Alexandra.

Avid-equipped stands for a suite of state-of-the-art tapeless motion picture editing and storage systems.

In 2003 the Senate Majority Leader appointed Mr Hubbell to the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism, and he serves as a co-chair of the CCT Film Committee. Mr Carruthers said the Newtown activities will be supported with $7,500 of the $10,000 the selectmen unanimously approved.

He said that promotional support will include print, radio, and viral web promotions, with the $2,500 balance of the selectmen’s allocation reserved for Edmond Town Hall rentals, including the movie theater for the duration of the event.

Mr Carruthers said he expects to confirm the CFF Newtown date, as well as to begin announcing the other films and shorts to be featured on the program as early as next week.

Sneak Preview Planned

The public has an opportunity to view a few clips from Dislecksia during a screening and CFF organizational meeting next week. Mr Hubbell and Mr Carruthers, among others, will be at C.H. Booth Library on Wednesday, February 18, at 5:30 pm. Mr Hubbell said this week that he will have two or three clips from the movie with him.

About one in seven Americans has some degree of dyslexia, a condition that makes it hard to learn to read the same way other people do. In what he is calling a “comic documentary,” Mr Hubbell, with assistance from dyslexic writer Jeremy Brecher and several dyslexic crew members, present the latest scientific knowledge about dyslexia and the experience of dyslexics.

“It’s a national issue, with more than 90,000 people directly affected,” the director said this week. “Residents will also be interested to see that parts of the movie were shot in Newtown, since I followed my own story for part of the filming.”

The screenings will be followed by a brief organizational meeting for the film festival itself. Anyone interested in learning more about the festival is encouraged to attend the session, which will take place in the lower meeting room of the library, 25 Main Street in Newtown.