Local photographer premiers film at Norfolk Library

By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo

The prolific photographer and writer Christopher Little delighted hundreds of Norfolkians last month with his 40-minute documentary chronicling a year in the life of our town.

Showings at the Norfolk Country Club and the Norfolk Library packed the respective houses. Over 400 people have now seen the movie. “I was so pleased with the turnout,” Little remarked. This is his second stab at movie-making. The first, made 49 years ago, was also a huge hit. Little joked, “But I only showed it to my family.”

Little learned to fly a drone to take aerial shots of Norfolk for his film.

The Norfolk documentary progresses through the seasons, using still photography and rarely seen views of town (captured by Little’s drone camera that he admits he really doesn’t enjoy flying). “I learned how to use the drone on various web forums, and people are always sharing their stories of crashing the things, so that’s always in the back of my mind.”

But the risk has its rewards. The cinematography is stunning, as are the dialogues with townspeople. Little captures various craftsman and tinkerers in their element, and those scenes are so visceral that they can’t be described as interviews; Jon Riedeman in his studio discussing the struggle in capturing birds in sculpture, John Thew musing about how nice a third arm would be in his weathervane construction and Vint Lawrence waxing poetic on his gardens and the cycle of life, to name a few.

The film evokes a range of moods, not unlike life in Norfolk—at times contemplative, often witty and sometimes intensely emotional, although that may not have been Little’s intent. “It was supposed to be funny, but many people have told me they got choked up in a few places.”

Rosemary Gill’s reaction to the film stuck with Little. She said to him, “You don’t realize how important this is. It’s a snapshot of this town, at one instant in time. People are going to watch this film 30 years from now, and it will make an impact on them.”

The genesis of the film came after Little’s third novel was received with much disdain from his agent and various readers. Little found himself in a dejected state, craving a new personal project that would bring him some joy. “I set out with the thought of assembling some pretty pictures in four seasons, setting it to music and calling it a day,” Little recounted. But his first audience, his family, responded to the initial product with, “There’s no talking! You have to talk!”

So Little set back to work on the project, and spent months learning about sound. “When I realized I needed people speaking in the film, my initial efforts were clumsy, but I knew the sound had to be really good.” Little did a lot of research, purchased a shotgun mike and a lapel mike and played around with the audio for quite a while until he had it right. He found a free program on the web, “Audacity” that he used to enhance the voice-overs.

While Little realizes he could have profiled a lot more people in the film, he felt that keeping it at the 40-minute length was important for audience retention. That said, he’s not expecting any more public viewings. “It’s not like this thing is going to Sundance,” Little says. “A friend of mine from Cornwall said he was going to ask about it being shown at the Cornwall library. I said, ‘Really, so you can be the only one in the audience?’ ”

All jokes aside, Little had 200 DVDs made of the film, which quickly sold out. He will accommodate more requests for copies, so send inquiries to cl@christopherlittle.com.

Photo, top, by Bruce Frisch. Photo, above right, by Wiley Wood.