FARMINGTON — Maine’s rich history once again comes to life in the Emery Community Arts Center on the UMF campus with Sumner McKane’s “The Maine Frontier: Through the Lens of Isaac Walton Simpson.” This true-life story of family, work, community and culture in northern Maine in the early 1900s will be presented in the Emery Performance Space at 7 p.m., Friday, Sept. 26. The event is free and open to the public.
A unique historical documentary and live multimedia presentation, The Maine Frontier features the never-before-seen photography of Isaac Walton Simpson, an early 1900s Maine pioneer. Combined with archived and current film, archived oral histories and a compelling musical score, it tells the story of the hard-scrabble life in northern Maine.
A photographer, blacksmith, barber, musician, woodsman, mechanic and father of 13, Simpson chronicled life in Maine with over 1,500 photos taken in the far reaches of the Maine frontier. His images show the faces of the farmers, loggers, railroad workers and well-to-do that carved a living out of the Maine wilderness.
McKane is a composer and filmmaker based in mid-coast Maine who combines archived film, photography, oral history, sound design and live music to present ‘docu-exhibits’ that bring history to life.
In 2013, his self-produced live multimedia presentations earned him a Maine Arts Commission Media and Performing Arts Fellowship. In 2012, he received a Horizon Foundation grant to present his docu-exhibit “In the Blood,” on the life of Maine lumberman in the early 1800s, in Maine schools. He received a Maine Humanities Council major grant in 2011.
He is currently touring with The Maine Frontier and In The Blood. He is booking performances in arts venues and theaters, as well as presenting for middle school, high school and college students. He is working on his latest film, titled: “Running Rum in the Northeast” and touring with the Don Campbell Band.
McKane teaches at the Midcoast Guitar School in Wiscasset and Buckdancers Choice Music School, in Portland. He studied photography at the Rocky Mountain School of Photography and at the University of Montana. He graduated from the University of Southern Maine.
This UMF presentation is sponsored by the Emery Community Arts Center.
