The screening of Part Two - “Under the Surface” will be followed by a facilitated discussion and is scheduled for Friday, February 20 from 6:30-8:30 PM at the library. Call 802-824-4307 or email wilderweston@gmail.com to RSVP, as space is limited.

Wilder Memorial Library in Weston is pleased to announce that it will be offering screenings of all six parts of “Freedom & Unity: The Vermont Movie” throughout 2015. “Freedom & Unity: The Vermont Movie” is a six-part collaborative documentary produced by several dozen Vermont-based filmmakers. Using cinema verite, personal stories, rare footage, compelling interviews and original re-enactments they’ve created a living testament that explores the history and contemporary culture of the Green Mountain State. Vermonters past and present – from Abenakis and early settlers, runaway slaves, farmers, historians, politicians, activists, newcomers moving “back to the land” – tell how one small state has made a very big difference.

Part Two deepens the journey, digging beneath the surface of Vermont’s bucolic image to explore labor wars, eugenics experiments, the McCarthy era, and progressive Republicanism. Covering over a century—from pre-Civil War to 2009—it chronicles the rise of unions and quarry work, Barre’s Socialist Labor Party Hall, the marketing of Vermont, the state’s reaction to New Deal policies, George Aiken's gentle populism, and Republican Ralph Flanders’ heroic stand against Joe McCarthy during the Red Scare. Emigrés from urban areas, “back-to-the-landers” like Helen and Scott Nearing and filmmaker Nora Jacobson’s father, Nicholas Jacobson, came to Vermont in search of an alternative lifestyle.

For more information about future screenings of “The Vermont Movie” documentary parts at Wilder Memorial Library, please visit http://www.wildermemoriallibrary.org, @wilderweston, or our Facebook page.