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Last updated on Thursday, June 25, 2015
(ORLEANS) - A world movie premiere is coming to Orleans, as part of the town’s Bicentennial Celebration.
"A Town Born of Victory: 200 Years of Triumph", a film by Christopher Dillard and Cathy Dillard Hardin, will be presented on a special stage in Congress Square Park on Friday, July 3, with Orleans residents, visitors, and distinguished guests representing the town's founding families in the audience.
The film, a project spanning three years of filming and preparation, tells the story of Orleans through new and vintage photos and old film footage, as well as through verbal stories presented by local and former residents.
With few exceptions, every voice heard in the 82-minute movie comes from someone with close ties to Orleans. Everyone watching will see a number of familiar faces, both recent and from years past. With the film's vintage feel, the filmmakers hope to take viewers on a trip through time, as if they were thumbing through an old family album.
"This documentary is something very special," Orleans 200 Committee Chair Robert F. Henderson says. "Years after the bunting is down, the fireworks displays have ended, and the bands have quieted, this piece of film will serve as a treasured icon of Orleans' historic past and bright future."
Both Dillard and Hardin served as directors of the film, with Dillard filming and editing a script conceived and written by Mrs. Hardin. Orleans native John Noblitt narrates the documentary-style movie, his voice serving as the common thread that weaves the town's 200-year story together through a series of victories over the wilderness, hardship, ignorance, death, poverty, boredom and time.
An original song, "Triumphant," is featured in the film, as well, written by Cathy Dillard Hardin and arranged and performed by Mike Magill of Orleans. The song itself is a condensed story of Orleans, following the same theme of victory as the film, and recounting how the people of Orleans overcame each obstacle the town faced.
"A Town Born of Victory: 200 Years of Triumph" has been designated a Bicentennial Legacy Project by the Indiana Bicentennial Commission in recognition of its relevance to Indiana and the way in which it tells the story of so many rural communities throughout the Hoosier State.
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