Press Forward

Just sent our latest press release, reporting our progress. You can read it here first:

P.O. Box 6461
Providence, Rhode Island, 02940
www.midway-pictures.com
(401) 568-9107


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



PROVIDENCE, R.I. _ With principal photography winding down, the filmmakers behind the feature-length documentary ON THE LAKE: Life and Love in a Distant Place are completing their trailer and moving into post-production. The New England premiere has been set for Feb. 13, 2009, at the Stadium theater in Woonsocket, R.I.

ON THE LAKE tells the story of the tuberculosis epidemic of the late 1800s through the 1950s, when effective antibiotic treatments were developed. Known as The White Plague, TB was the nation’s number-one killer of the time – as feared as AIDS, ebola and bird flu would be in a later era.

“It's a powerful story and I'm excited to bring it to the screen,” said director David Bettencourt, whose last major film, YOU MUST BE THIS TALL: The Story of Rocky Point Park, won critical acclaim, enjoyed a long run in regional theaters, and was broadcast on PBS.

This is a national – indeed, international – story that has never been told in a documentary film like this. Before effective drugs, victims of TB (easily spread through a cough or a sneeze) were sent to sanatoria, where fresh air, rest and healthy food were the only hopes for cure. Many patients died -- but many others recovered, if only after years of hospitalization, and some went on to marry fellow patients they had met while in a sanatorium. Many stayed on at the hospital as nurses and assistants, and raised their children there. The filmmakers will tell these universal stories of romance, love and family – the element of human triumph arising from tragic circumstances.

“This is an important story about a scary and terrible time in our country’s history,” said Bettencourt. “But through it all, people found love and happiness and laughter.”

Principal shooting took place at three locations: Saranac Lake, New York, America’s foremost sanatoria center; in and around Denver, Colorado, another leading center; and Wallum Lake, Rhode Island, site of an historic sanatorium (that still exists as a chronic-disease hospital, Zambarano). Additional shooting took place in North Carolina, Massachusetts and Baltimore.

“What began with our first shoot in November as a look only at Wallum Lake soon became a national and then a global story with significant public-health relevance today,” said producer G. Wayne Miller. “But the heart of the film remains the stories of love and happiness that we found everywhere. We expect that this will be a deeply emotionally charged experience for our audiences.”

The filmmakers have received unprecedented access to previously unseen archives of still photos, home movies, letters and other documents kept by institutions and former patients and their relatives who are featured in the film. Through The National Library of Medicine and other sources, the filmmakers have also obtained copies of government and professional footage, dating back to the late 1920s, and some of it never before seen.

ON THE LAKE will close with a look at the re-emergence of TB as an international public-health crisis today. Two of the world’s leading TB experts have gone on camera for the hour-long movie.

For more information, to follow progress on the official blog, or to view the trailer when it is completed later this month, visit www.onthelakemovie.com

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