For those interested, the documentary will be on WIPB tonight.
There is a website about the Courthouse Girls with a store where you can
order calendars, T-shirts or a replica of the courthouse. Proceeds from any
sales go to a Save the Court House Fund.
The link to the website is
www.courthousegirls.com
MUNCIE -- By now, you know the story.
Seven old ladies showed some skin, posed for a calendar and caused an uproar
in Randolph County.
You've read about them, and the even older courthouse they worked to save,
for what seems like forever. And this week, you can see them (fully clothed)
in your living room.
On Thursday, the Courthouse Girls of Farmland, a 51-minute documentary that
showcases the women's fight, will air at 9 p.m. on WIPB, Muncie's PBS
station.
It's a story WIPB helped tell, as the station was hired to film it. Farmland
native Jeff Crone, a videographer for WIPB, is one of the film's photography
directors.
"People come to us with ideas but it usually fizzles out," said Alice
Cheney, general manager of WIPB. "This is probably an exception because
there was something happening of importance, which was saving the
courthouse, and we like to cover local things that will appeal to our
viewers."
For months covering the story meant Crone spent Monday mornings at meetings
of the Randolph County board of commissioners. He stood in the corner with
his camera and filmed the debate.
But just as the documentary is about more than commissioners' decisions --
first to demolish the courthouse in June 2005, then to reverse that decision
in March 2006 -- Crone and his camera went outside the commissioners'
meeting room as well.
There's a singing scene from the courthouse lawn, tours that show the
bubbled paint and disrepair of the building and footage of events in
Farmland that proves this town will try anything once. There's a cameo by
former First Lady Judy O'Bannon and music (the song Naked People) by Muncie
native songstress Jennie DeVoe.
And yes, there are interviews with the Courthouse Girls, as well as members
of their families who were shocked with what their mothers and grandmothers
agreed to do.
There also are interviews with a few who don't like what "The Girls" have
done. Convincing those people to appear on camera was one of director Norman
Klein's biggest struggles. Klein, a friend of executive producer Angela
Soper (a Farmland native whose mother, Eileen Herron, 89, is Miss October),
joined the project late and spent a week in Indiana pulling loose ends
together.
"I thought that this movie would not be revolutionary, but it would be cute
and I thought it would attract an audience, and not a younger audience,"
Klein said. "These women were doing what most of us have stopped doing. They
were getting involved in their community."
The documentary already has premiered at two film festivals, and last month
was judged the top audience pick at the Breckenridge (Colo.) Festival of
Film. The airing on WIPB will be its television premiere, but executive
producers Soper and Larry Francer (co-owner of Tanglevine Crossing in
Farmland) hope other PBS stations, especially the seven others in Indiana,
pick up the film.
Brent Molnar, program manager for WTIU in Bloomington, said his station will
air it this fall. A date hasn't been chosen.
The fact that the documentary showcases both the pros and cons of The Girls'
fight, from both liberal and conservative points of view, is one Molnar
expects to speak to viewers of the station at Indiana University.
"It's nice to see how they got involved in the process and how they were
able to expose -- maybe that's not the right word to use -- they were able
to bring the issue to light," Molnar said. "Anything that looks like it has
a local or regional tie in, I definitely look at and give a serious
consideration."
Contact Henry and Randolph county reporter Joy Leiker at 213-5825.