Films unravel ‘untold and undertold’ stories of local women’s experiences

What do you get when you combine the talents of two longtime friends, one a historian and the other the head of a production company? 

Three short films about impactful women in Acton’s history. 

The trio — “Ellen Garrison: Scenes from an Activist Life,” “Margaret Lathrop and the Wayside,” and “Women of the Old Manse” (sneak peek) — will be screened at The Umbrella Arts Center on May 17. 

They are being presented by the arts center in partnership with the Tufts University Half the History Film Project, the Old Manse, The Robbins House, Barefoot Books, and Acton 250. 

Julie Dobrow, a Lincoln resident, and Jennifer Burton of Brookline teach in the Film and Media Studies program at Tufts University. Dobrow, a historian, biographer, and social scientist, is the director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies there and a distinguished senior lecturer in the Child Study and Human Development department. 

With her four siblings, Burton, who also teaches in the Tufts Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies department, runs the award-winning, Los Angeles-based film company Five Sisters Productions. 

The pair “put our backgrounds together” to form Half the History, a project that “uses short-form biography, film, and podcast to tell the untold and under-told stories of women’s lives,” says Dobrow. 

While “trying to highlight women’s stories,” she says, the team tries to choose local subjects “since we involve our students in all aspects of production.“ Dobrow does most of the research, helps to write the scripts, and assists with the many tasks involved with film production.

Dobrow had read Acton resident Bob Gross’ book “The Transcendentalists and Their World,” in whose pages she learned about Garrison. She called Burton to declare, “I know what our next film should be.” They launched a partnership with The Robbins House.

Five Sisters produced the Wayside film several years ago, but the score is new, Dobrow says. When she heard from someone at the Old Manse that “there were some pretty incredible women who’d lived there,” it led to the third film. The creators are “heavily into” editing the Old Manse film, planned for release this spring.  

The Garrison piece was filmed in The Robbins House, in the barn at Orchard House, and in a couple of rooms in the Acton Armory that served as places in Garrison’s life. The Wayside and Old Manse stories were filmed on location.  

Each piece runs about 20 minutes and is “really a community production, with the partners we’ve made here in Acton,” says Dobrow. The team works with professional actors and tries to “center actual women’s words from their own writings in our scripts.” 

And every project, she adds, “has reinforced for us that there are many remarkable stories yet to be discovered and told.”

The films will be shown May 17 starting at 3 p.m. at The Umbrella Arts Center, 40 Stow Street. Admission is free. Complimentary child care is available by advance registration or by first-come, first-served dropoff.