Entertainment is a regular feature at the Smith Hokansen Auditorium in the Vinalhaven School. Nationally known musical acts have appeared, and presentations with lots of local appeal. A movie premiere on July 16, however, had a turnout that surprised everyone. Originally only one showing had been scheduled for “The Islander,” filmed last year on Vinalhaven. But Norah Warren, one of the overseers of the auditorium as well as an island actor in the film, had second thoughts. Her prediction — that this was the event of the summer and everyone would show up — was right on.
It was, a number of people said, a “Vinalhaven Happening.” Lines for each of two shows formed early, and after all the seats and standing room spaces were taken, late arrivals had to be turned away. There may have been a thousand people who showed up. Vinalhaveners are good at lines — the ferry, after all, necessitates getting into one ahead of time — and no one complained. And no one was there to see a star-studded film where locals in the cast were simply background. Everyone knew this movie, while not specifically about Vinalhaven, was about a community a lot like Vinalhaven. Even if town citizens weren’t the big names, the island was. Really: the island, its way of life and its hard-edged yet delicate beauty starred in the film. The camera’s long, lingering looks at boats and water and locals and lobstering were like loving caresses.
This movie was made by a man who knows and loves the island. Tom Hildreth, the producer and the film’s main character, grew up summers here. He is familiar with a lot of the coast of Maine. As he might have hoped, Vinalhaven welcomed his interest (and film crew) warmly. And the feeling was, as one of the local participants put it, mutual: townspeople were hospitable, patient, friendly, helpful. And the film company was, by this account, equally sensitive, appreciative, inclusive. People working in the movie (and many had very visible roles) offered advice as to what dialogue sounded right, how a scene might be adjusted to be just so. They were, after all, the experts, and Hildreth and director Ian McCrudden listened. They wanted the story to ring true — not specific to Vinalhaven per se, but to a lobstering community off the coast of Maine.
Resoundingly, Vinalhaven viewers at the island premiere said the movie captured island life, right down to the very last image, featuring a Chocolate Lab (one of the Hildreths’) that lives here. One dissonant note was the accent and affect of one of the main characters, wife of the featured lobsterman. She was played by Amy Jo Johnson, the Pink Power Ranger of TV fame, who created a lot of buzz during the filming.
What did people react to as they watched the movie? The lines that really brought down the house were uttered by a sternman (not played by a local) everyone would have had a soft spot for, resembling as he did a composite of real ones. He said he’d showed up for an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting on the island and been the only one there. “Guess I’m the only one on this island with a drinking problem,” he concluded. The audience roared. They also laughed at the scene of children leaving a building which everyone on Vinalhaven knows as the new town offices, although it long ago served as a school. In the movie it’s a quaint schoolhouse; in actuality the island proudly boasts a state-of-the-art school, a true 21st-century facility.
Maybe that’s the beauty of making a film in Vinalhaven, or at least this particular one: it works as a canvas upon which to paint a certain picture, and islanders are pretty darn supportive and helpful, even if the picture painted is not quite reality. That seems to be because they know that this place is so powerful, so much a presence, it will prevail. It is certainly what this film ultimately showcases. The island is the star of the show. And who, among island viewers, could find fault with that?