'Pony Boys,' documentary with local ties, to screen at Monadnock Film Festival
Sep. 23—Some 55 years ago, two Massachusetts brothers ages 9 and 11 — desperate to attend the world fair in Montreal — passed through the Monadnock Region on a cart hitched to their family pet, a Shetland pony named King.
"Pony Boys," a short documentary recounting Jeff and Tony Whittemore's improbable 350-mile journey from Needham, Mass., to visit the world's fair, Expo 67, in Montreal will screen Saturday at 5:30 p.m. at The Colonial Theatre's Showroom in Keene.
The screening is part of the 10th Monadnock International Film Festival, which kicked off Friday, and both Whittemore brothers and the film's director, Eric Stange, will be there to answer questions and discuss the documentary on Saturday.
The Whittemores' grandfather owned a home in Jaffrey, which was the boys' third stop on the pony trip.
"The whole area is close to my heart," Jeff Whittemore said in an interview Friday. "I'm really excited it's going to be showing in Keene."
The 25-minute film has been acquired by The New York Times Op-Docs, an award-winning series of short subject documentaries, and will debut on the news organization's website and YouTube page Tuesday, according to Stange. The director's other works, which have been broadcast on PBS, BBC and The Discovery Channel, include "Edgar Allan Poe: Buried Alive," "Murder at Harvard," and "The Wall" and "After the Wall," a two-part series about modern Germany.
Inspiration for "Pony Boys" began when Stange met Jeff Whittemore, who was his neighbor in Arlington, Mass., at a community barbecue a number of years ago. Upon hearing Whittemore's story, Stange said, he knew it would make a great documentary, but it wasn't until just before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 that he conducted the first interview with Whittemore for the film. With the world grinding to a halt, Stange said he spent his free time putting the film together.
"It's just a charming, delightful, happy story ... and it raises some big questions, too, particularly about parenting," he said. "How do you let children have enough freedom and learn resilience and at the same time keep them safe?"
The boys set off with King, alone, for Montreal in summer 1967, encouraged by their mother, after their parents couldn't take them on the trip, according to a news release about the film.
Heather Merrill, the film's archival and coordinating producer, said "Pony Boys" contains the only existing footage of the Whittemores' 27-day journey, which she discovered undigitized in an Associated Press collection. The documentary, which premiered at the Independent Film Festival Boston in April, where it won the Special Jury Prize, also includes previously unpublished photographs taken by the Boston Globe photographer who covered the story, she said.
With a total of 30 screenings, the Monadnock Film Festival runs through Oct. 6. In-person events at Showroom in Keene and The Park Theatre in Jaffrey are scheduled through Sunday, with online showings from Tuesday through Oct. 6.
Other entries with a local tie include the documentary "Let It Shine: The Story of the Keene Pumpkin Festival," directed by local filmmaker Gavin Key; "More than a Roof," a half-hour documentary on homelessness in Cheshire County; and "Georgia's Line," a short film set in Vermont and written and directed by Keene State College professor Jo Dery. Keene State alumni and students participated in the production and post-production of "Georgia's Line," according to a news release from the college.
More information is available at moniff2022.eventive.org.
"We're thrilled to be at the Monadnock Film Festival," Merrill said. "These are the towns that made the journey special. The boys' journey was special because they shared it with everyone along the way. I think it's fitting that it's being shown in the region."
Ryan Spencer can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1412, or rspencer@keenesentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter at @rspencerKS
