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Filmmaker remembered by city leaders

The Inter-Mountain photo by Sarah Goodrich Bryson VanNostrand, Buckhannon city architect, speaks during a small ceremony Monday honoring Pare Lorentz.

BUCKHANNON — As a permanent tribute to Pare Lorentz — an acclaimed documentarian who resided in Buckhannon — a placard was installed Monday at the Colonial Theater.

The City of Buckhannon hosted a small ceremony Monday afternoon outside of the Colonial Theater in honor of Lorentz, who died 26 years ago Sunday.

“Pare Lorentz may have been the most celebrated person ever to live here in Buckhannon, yet he seems to be mostly overlooked locally, dare I say slightly,” said Mayor David McCauley. “Our city intends to right that wrong.”

The installed placard details the life of Lorentz, stating that he and his family moved to Buckhannon from Clarksburg when he was very young.

“But leave no doubt that Pare Lorentz considered Buckhannon to be his home,” McCauley said. “This is where he came to visit his parents after he grew up and moved away to visit the world. This is where he first attended college at age 11, and this is where he instructed his remains to be interred following his 1992 passing. Buckhannon is Pare Lorentz’s hometown.”

McCauley explained Lorentz wrote the first recounting of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency, “capturing the glory of the first year as president.” Lorentz soon became FDR’s documentarian filmmaker, and was thought of as the Steven Spielberg of his time.

Throughout his career, Lorentz was a contributing writer to some of the most prolific newspapers and magazines of his time — The New York Evening Journal, The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, Town and Country, McCall’s and The New Yorker.

McCauley added his documentaries “The Plow That Broke The Plain,” “The River,” “The Fight For Life,” “The City,” “The Land” and “Rural Co-op” are among the most famous works in American film history.

Noting that Lorentz’s skills began in Buckhannon, McCauley said, “It is important that we know our story and tell that story.”

Council member CJ Rylands, who attended Monday’s ceremony, explained the importance of sharing the history of the town with community members and visitors.

“Each one of these plaques that offer historical and cultural insight into our community strengthens our connections to this place,” Rylands said.

Bryson VanNostrand, Buckhannon’s city architect, agreed with Rylands.

“I think this is a perfect example honoring our past, polishing it up and then planning for stocking these kids in this building making movies,” VanNostrand said. “That’s where you kind of take the past and launch into a future vision, which would clearly define part of this downtown.”

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