| Documentary to show the prison saga from Pontiac |
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| Written by Brandon James Smith, Daily Vidette Staff Writer |
| Monday, 09 November 2009 01:20 |
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Brian Seay knows that sometimes real life stories are better than fiction. That is why he knew that he had stumbled across something powerful while covering the proposed closing of Pontiac Prison for a Peoria news station. “I was working for WHOI at the time and I did a story on the Pontiac issue. I went and met the then Mayor Scott McCoy. He was telling me why he didn’t agree with then Governor Blagojevich’s decision to close [the prison]. It became apparent to me that this is worth doing a longer piece on and I bought a camera,” Seay said. Seay, a graduate teaching assistant in the school of communication, followed McCoy and other citizens of Pontiac for months. Eventually, a documentary was created from the footage that was shot. The film, fittingly named “Pontiac’s Rebellion,” will be screened at 7 p.m. on Monday night at the Normal Theatre. “It’s a great story about a community coming together and fighting against something they didn’t believe in,” Seay said. “I think there are lessons to be learned from it.” In 2008, despite constant criticism, former Governor Blagojevich decided he was going to shut down the Pontiac Prison. With only around 12,000 people in the town, closing the prison would have been a crushing blow to the town. However, the people were not willing to give up without a fight, which is what the film captures. “I think the major take away is just realizing that as bad as things look, there is always a reason to be involved civically in your community because you can affect change,” Griffin Hammond, editor of the film, said. The American Democracy Project-sponsored screening of the 93-minute documentary is free and Seay said he is not trying to make a profit off the film, but instead just wants as many people to see it as possible. Seay said the making of the film was a long process and that he has spent thousands of dollars on it that he is still paying off. Be that as it may, he chose to follow what was important to him, set a goal and accomplished that goal. “A lot of times people don’t think that they have a voice or that they can’t make a difference… but not only have Scott McCoy and the people of Pontiac’s actions proven otherwise, but also me going out and buying a camera and making something happen,” Seay said. “Making a movie about this shows that you can do whatever the heck you want to do. I think that’s a lesson to be learned too.” Hammond said Seay shot months of footage and that it was a challenge editing a feature length film. “This movie was significantly longer than what I’m used to. It took a long time, especially because I’m so used to short-form stuff and I’m kind of a perfectionist when it comes to audio levels and the color balance on the screen,” Hammond said. “It was difficult getting through that much material.” Hammond said throughout the course of the filming, neither of them knew how the story was going to turn out. They had planned for the worst, expected that the prison would go under and all those employees would be out of a job. As fate would have it, shortly after Blagojevich was arrested, Gov. Pat Quinn announced the prison would stay open. Seay and the people of Pontiac received their happy ending after all. “The fact that things worked out for these people, that they were actually overcome this problem was amazing,” Hammond added. “It just makes the story that much more important.” |
