Documentary

Back to School: Lessons from Norwich’s One-Room Schoolhouses

The Root District Game Club collaborated with Boston-based Historic New England, the nation’s oldest, largest, and most comprehensive regional heritage organization, and CATV on a documentary about the history of Norwich’s one-room schoolhouses.  Ten students who attended Norwich one-room schoolhouses in the 1930s and 1940s were interviewed and dozens of historic photos provided by the Norwich Historical Society were identified for use in the documentary.  The documentary, called Back to School: Lessons from Norwich’s One-Room Schoolhouses, premiered in June 2015 with showings at Wilder Center in Wilder, Vermont, and Marion Cross School, in Norwich, Vermont.

Click Here to watch Back to School on Vimeo.

Click Here to watch Back to School on YouTube.

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Many thanks to our partners who helped bring this movie to life, including the documentary’s director, Ken Turino, Manager of Community Engagement and Exhibitions at Historic New England; Bob Franzoni, the Executive Director of CATV; Emily Potts of CATV, the documentary’s editor; Norwich Historical Society, for contributing dozens of historic photographs; Travis Ramsey, for composing the documentary’s score, called “Marion’s Morning”; Spencer Lewis, for recording the soundtrack live at Beaver Meadow Schoolhouse; the members of the string quartet who performed the music, Alicia Casey, Benjamin Van Vliet, Madalyne Cross, and Benjamin Kulp; the many people who contributed to the crowdfunding campaign that made the soundtrack possible; the Beaver Meadow Schoolhouse Association; and, finally, special thanks to the former schoolhouse students and others who shared their memories and knowledge for this documentary.

Click Here to view a short video about the recording of the soundtrack for Back To School.

Click Here for Historic New England’s webpage about the documentary.