In the summer of 1982, my wife, Lutie, and I left our home in suburban Philadephia and spent 6 weeks in Vermont. With no agenda, arriving with our new baby daughter, her two older brothers, and my mother, inspired by Charlie Chaplin, I commandeered, coerced, or bribed everyone and everything in my path to make a silent movie which might document this wonderful time and place. Knowing absolutely nothing about cameras or movies, i jumped in with both feet. Using super 8 film, improvising a plot, I created characters and roles for the family and for everyone who visited us that summer.
The movie, after its initial construction and editing that winter, languished in the closet till I transferred it to VHS tape when that came along. Happily thirty years after the film was shot, I met a very competent and friendly cinematographer, Bill Klayer who, with near divine graciousness, offered to help me "finish" the movie. More than several constructive and amusing meetings in Vermont and in NYC and lots of patience ,and a few years later... the movie, now digitalized, with a sound track finally added... is cleaned up to the nearly presentable form it enjoys today.
I can hardly believe that it now so readily accessible. It's a real thrill for me to present another version of Jack and the Beanstalk.