By Stuart Adelberg
History was never my best subject. This is odd because I have always found stories from the past to be fascinating. I love to visit historic places imagining the people I’ve learned about walking the same streets, seeing, and touching the same things. I love to participate in traditions that have been observed for thousands of years. But the thought of poring through history books, memorizing fact and dates, listening to lectures about historic events, even with excellent teachers, just doesn’t do it for me. I need history to be real. I need to see, hear, and feel people, places, and things from the past before I can make them part of my present. Thankfully, film makes this happen.
A few years ago, before we ever heard of COVID, volunteers from the Jewish Historical Society of Fairfield County came to see me. This non-profit group was planning to create a documentary focusing on the small businesses that once supplied virtually all the products and services in Stamford, but that had largely disappeared over the past 75+ years. The organizers were eager to have their documentary shown at the Avon, which of course, made sense, since our theatre is a part of the history these folks intended to tell. They hadn’t begun to make the film, but we agreed to stay in touch and work together to present it to the community when it was done.
I knew that this event belonged at our non-profit independent cinema. Inviting the community to see this film in our big, beautiful historic theatre was a perfect fit for the Avon’s mission. But to be honest, I did not have great expectations. I assumed it would have limited appeal and would draw in the nostalgic and those who have been around long enough to remember much of what would be shown in the documentary. I was completely wrong!
REMEMBERING THE FAMILY STORE is an interesting, touching, and extremely well-made narrative about virtually every city and town in America. Through its beautifully filmed 75 minutes, the audience hears directly from the people who were part of these small family businesses. . . the children who grew up in the stores, the people for whom the family business wasn’t a job, but a way of life. We see what today’s familiar streets once looked like and hear firsthand accounts about the lives and personalities of their parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles – the folks who risked everything to start these enterprises – who saw themselves as much as friends, neighbors, and community servants as businesspeople.
Of course, we know how the story ends. Many, though not all, of these businesses, even some who were doing quite well, eventually disappeared as the landscape of both the city and local commerce changed. There is a combination of disappointment about the loss of something very special, but also a sense of resignation, that change, to some extent, was inevitable. And, as I noted above, what happened in downtown Stamford, also happened everywhere else.
The mere fact that I write about this film tells you that it was enormously successful in teaching me about local history – instilling in me a sense of how important it is for us to recognize and honor those who came before us – despite the fact, that history, was never my best subject!
Movie fans have another opportunity to see REMEMBERING THE FAMILY STORE at the Avon on Sunday, October 16th at 11:00 am. Trust me, you will love it!
Stuart Adelberg is the Executive Director of the historic Avon Theatre Film Center, a non-profit, community-supported independent cinema in downtown Stamford. Stuart has a long history of involvement and leadership in the region’s non-profit arts and human services communities.
