HBO documentary crew visits Downeast for week of filming

It didn't take long for Eastporters to realize that a documentary film crew was in town August 8 through August 15. The first sign was a drone flying over the inner basin with a small crew standing near the Eastport Gallery at the intersection of Washington and Water streets on the morning of Friday, August 9.
The second sign was at the Eastport Music Festival's "Jammin' on the Deck" event held in the evening of the same day at the Chowder House restaurant. While members of the Shead High School Jazz Band played on attempting to keep straight faces, it caused some amusement in the audience to see the camera and sound men zeroing in on riffs and finger work, all the while attempting to look like they weren't there. They were there, and by the end of their week's visit they were conversing like regulars about the city's issues, people and places.
The documentary crew, the Boston‑based West City Films, was visiting Moose Island to film for an HBO production based on six communities portrayed in Our Towns, a book written by James and Deborah Fallows. The couple, writers for The Atlantic magazine, based their book on articles written about their travels around the country starting about six years ago when they began to examine how communities reinvent themselves successfully after significant economic decline.
James Fallows says, "This trip was the fifth time that Deb and I have been in Eastport, starting with our first visit in 2013. I think there are several reasons we've kept coming back, which were reinforced by what we saw during this past week." He points to the physical beauty of the island. "It is newly striking each time we arrive." However, as he has come to know the community, his respect for the "real work" underlying the town's economy has grown stronger with every visit.
"What makes this community different from many others we've seen is the emphasis on arts and culture and tourism and events -- on top of a very important basis of fisheries, the port, aquaculture and forest products," Fallows says. "It's unusual to find communities that have both aspects: a very ambitious artistic and cultural vision, combined with still‑significant industries of fishing and forestry."
Even more than the core identifiers of the town's economy are the people, Fallows notes. "But what first struck us about Eastport has impressed us all the more as time has gone on. That is the intensity, and the range, of engagement in the community, by nearly all members of this objectively small group of citizens. To make this city go -- economically, culturally, in its governance-- everyone has to do far more than his or her 'fair share,' across a wide range of duties, nearly all of the time. We were struck by how many people were doing more than they 'reasonably' should, to make Eastport go."
To get a feel for how Eastport operates on all its different levels, the Fallowses attended meetings held by the chamber of commerce and the city council and the Downeast Cares event held to fundraise for a Portland‑based immigrant rights organization. They visited nonprofit cultural and arts organizations, the Eastport Health Center, the Eastport Port Authority, fishermen and ship pilots, gallery and business owners, the Eastport Music Festival and more. They also met with Passamaquoddy tribal members and filmed parts of the Indian Day celebrations.
"At each and every place, we met people who were participating, volunteering and opening their wallets to support building Eastport in so many different ways," Deborah Fallows says. "All this adds up to an Eastport where the spirit feels stronger and more determined than ever before."
The West City Films crew has been contracted by HBO to work with the Fallowses on the documentary, which will be released later in 2020. Jeanne Jordan and Steve Ascher, the wife and husband filmmakers behind West City, associate producer Matt Cadwallader, second camera and drone pilot Bryan Harvey and sound engineer and Mainer Justin LaCroix, who joined the team just for the Maine segment of the documentary, appeared to be everywhere at once, with a schedule that most residents or visitors would have paced into a one‑month visit rather than a week.
"We were put together by HBO," explains Jordan, of working with the Fallowses. Of the couple, she says, "They are really unusual." Jordan, who has worked with a wide range of people and subjects through West City Films, explains that the couple, rather than being the "talent" with attitude, knows the limitations of what they know and are fed by constant curiosity. "It's a great collaboration," Ascher adds.
After Eastport, the crew's last visit before sitting down for serious editing is Bend, Oregon. They've been to Charleston, W.Va., Inland Empire of California  San Bernardino, Redlands and Riverside; Columbus, Miss.; and Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Eastport is the smallest of the places visited.
Each crew member has worked all over the world, and each brings their own set of interests and skill sets to the table. While Harvey, as a cameraman and drone pilot, sees film as an extension of telling a story visually, LaCroix is focused on making sure that the sound that needs to be recorded isn't being usurped by other sounds. Often that means that he has no room to focus on anything else. However, he was completely wowed by the Passamaquoddy canoe flotilla. "It was incredible. It was more than just back and forth interviews."
All of them note how pleasant the visit has been. Other than one vendor from Saturday's downtown flea market who took exception to their drone, everyone they have met has been friendly and helpful. Cadwallader notes with delight, "It's remarkable how quickly you are familiar with people [here]."
For more information about the Our Towns project, visit <www.theatlantic.com/our‑towns/> and <westcityfilms.com/ourtowns/>.