Library Hosts Documentary World Premiere

Above, Gregg Seibert delivers a  point about the documentary project.

In a bit a serendipity, the World Premiere of the Boatbuilders, fell in the middle of the ongoing Ben Franklin Book Week, which aims to herald and celebrate such achievements.

Director Gregg Seibert, Assistant Professor of Communications and Video Production at Dean College, and producer, Dean College Historian R.A. Lawson, were on hand to discuss the origins of the project and some of their work. They were joined by several of the team who helped produce the video.

The video shown is the first of a projected five-part production. According to the project web site, the story starts at the Herreshoff Museum in Bristol, Rhode Island. The brothers Nathaniel Greene Herreshoff and John Brown Herreshoff revolutionized boatbuilding with their vertically-integrated business plan and boundary-pushing designs, producing some of the most innovative commercial, recreational, and military boats ever developed. Throughout the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company’s reign from the 1870s through the 1940s, their true claim to fame came from designing and building sailing vessels that successfully defended the America’s Cup six consecutive times. The socio-economic perspective is on full display between the Gilded Age industrial magnates and those who made their dreams come true: the ingenious boatbuilders who designed and crafted these vessels and the strong-hearted crews who sailed them to glory.

The story travels to IYRS School of Technology and Trades in Newport, RE, a training ground for young boatbuilders focused on maintaining the legacy of Herreshoff boats, among other designs. IYRS has been training women and men at the art of restoring and building designs of the past and present. Then the film makers segue into present day boatbuilders, sailors, and owners who speak to the realities of boatbuilding in Rhode Island today, along with the challenges and rewards of maintaining the legacy and beauty of these works of art on the water.

The event drew about 35 people to the library.