It was meant to be a community project. Local talent, local locations, local pride.
By The Watertown Post
About ten years ago, there was a plan on the table to make a movie in Northern New York. Not a Hollywood blockbuster, not some green-screen spectacle filmed in Vancouver pretending to be somewhere else. A real film about a real place: The Battle of Sackets Harbor during the War of 1812.
The idea was simple enough.
Use local actors, film in the region where the history actually happened, and bring a little attention — and a little money — into Jefferson County. At the time there was about $50,000 ready to get the project rolling, enough to start building sets, organize scenes, and begin the long process of turning local history into a feature film.
It was meant to be a community project. Local talent, local locations, local pride.
And then something strange happened.
This was right around the period when American politics was beginning to resemble a cage match on television. The presidential campaign that would eventually bring Donald Trump into office was heating up, and suddenly — somehow — a historical movie about 1813 became political.
Actors started making demands.
Not about costumes.
Not about dialogue.
Not about the script.
About who else was allowed to be in the production.
One actor would say, “If that guy is in the movie, I’m not doing it.”
Another would say someone else couldn’t be involved because of their politics.
Someone else had objections to somebody’s Facebook posts.
Before a single camera rolled, the production had turned into a casting version of the United Nations Security Council, where everyone had veto power and nobody wanted to cooperate.
Instead of people asking, “How do we make this film great?” the conversations became, “Who’s allowed to stand in the same room as whom?”
For a project that was supposed to celebrate local history, it quickly became clear that the local politics were going to make it impossible.
So the decision was made.
The $50,000 stayed right where it was.
Rather than referee a community theater version of the Cold War, the producers packed up the idea, went back to Florida, and — as they say — lived the good life instead.
The movie about Sackets Harbor never happened.
Fast-forward to today.
Instead of a film production, there’s now The Watertown Post, a small but growing local news website covering Northern New York. It’s built the old-fashioned way: articles, reporting, and readers who actually visit the site.
One interesting detail: almost none of the traffic comes from Facebook. People simply go to the website and read the stories — a concept that apparently still works.
But something else has started happening.
Messages arrive.
Texts. Emails. The occasional lecture.
People explaining which individuals one is allowed to associate with and which ones are apparently forbidden.
“Don’t talk to this person.”
“You shouldn’t be friends with that person.”
“If you associate with them, we won’t support you.”
It sounds oddly familiar.
Because that’s exactly how the Sackets Harbor movie died before it even began.
When creative projects start turning into political loyalty tests, they tend to collapse under their own weight. Movies, newspapers, businesses — they all suffer the same fate when everyone tries to police everyone else’s friendships.
And there’s a very simple solution when that happens.
You take your money…
…and you run.
Northern New York has incredible history, talented people, and stories worth telling. But if every project turns into a political litmus test before the first brick is laid, those projects tend to disappear just as quickly as they appear.
The lesson from the lost Sackets Harbor movie is simple.
If people want things to be built here — films, businesses, media, whatever — they might consider letting people work together without demanding ideological purity tests.
Otherwise, history will repeat itself.
And the next time opportunity knocks in Northern New York, someone might just do what happened ten years ago.
Pack up the idea, take the money, and head somewhere warmer.
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