Historic Lewes shoots film on local maritime history

Men and women burst out of the Sussex Tavern, desperately trying to get to safety as British ships bombarded Lewes.

It was a big piece of the city’s history from the War of 1812, re-created for an interpretive film that will soon welcome visitors to the First Town in the First State.

A production team from Boston-based Northern Lights Productions spent the week of April 6 shooting at various locations in the city. Northern Lights makes films for museums and national parks across the country.

The scene they were shooting April 8 at the tavern on the Shipcarpenter Campus was appropriately called “Chaos.”

“It shows people’s fears of being in town and needing to get women and children back to the safety of the armory that was located near Blockhouse Pond,” said Tri McCarthy, Historic Lewes director of operations and a volunteer actor in the scene.

The talent was a mix of professional actors and local volunteers, many of whom don period costumes for Historic Lewes events. There were 50-60 people working on the production.

“We put Bill Collick [Historic Lewes board member] and another actor in a boat. It was great. Nobody died,” said Annie Tubiolo, the film’s producer. She lives in Lewes and volunteers as a bartender at the Sussex Tavern.

Tubiolo is a retired filmmaker with the National Park Service. She has worked with Northern Lights for 30 years on a wide range of historic films, including one for the First State National Historical Park in Dover.

“I said these are the people I want. I want the A team. We just finished a film on Frederick Douglass,” Tubiolo said.

The 15-minute film, which does not yet have a title, is slated to debut at the reimagined Historic Lewes Maritime Museum at 101 Adams Ave.

Historic Lewes will hold a soft opening for the museum from 4 to 6 p.m., Wednesday, April 15. The full museum will reopen in December. The film is scheduled to debut soon after.

“The museum is going to serve as a welcome center to help orient people to the history of Lewes. We also built a theater space. The film is going to be part of that welcoming experience,” said Erik Hein, Historic Lewes board chair.

Hein said the film will start in the early days of Lewes’ founding and continue through 1812. Local filmmaker Rob Waters will add a 90-second tag that showcases fun activities for people in modern-day Lewes.

The production crew will shoot in Salem, Mass., in May and June. That town’s waterfront will double as the Lewes waterfront from the 17th and 18th centuries.

Hein said the film will show how Lewes was a vibrant small town throughout its history.

“We had sailors coming in and out, going all over the world. It was a pretty diverse town. I think people don’t realize just a how diverse, a mixture of black and white, and some pretty worldly characters,” Hein said.