In 1987, when classic films like “High Noon” and “It’s a Wonderful Life” were being colorized and their directors were powerless to stop it, one Congressman stood up against these alterations. His name was Robert J. Mrazek. That year, when Fred Zinnemann, the director of “High Noon” and Mrazek’s favorite director, came to visit him, Zinnemann asked for Congressman Mrazek’s help to stop these changes.
Mrazek agreed that these changes were unacceptable – the way he saw it, a filmmaker is like a sculptor, who can make sculptures from whatever material he desires. If a sculpture should remain preserved in its original form, then so, in short, should a film.
Compelled to act, Mrazek authored the National Film Preservation Act, which, when passed by Congress, allowed the Library of Congress to set aside 25 films a year for preservation. Not only does this preserve film, it preserves a depiction of culture, and of history. “That was something I cared very deeply about,” Mrazek said of the National Film Preservation Act.
Apparently, that care never waned. Over 25 years later, Mrazek has returned to the world of film, writing and co-directing the movie “Catatonk Blues.”
The movie, which was filmed in 20 days on Monhegan Island and in Rockland and Augusta, follows the story of eight-term Congressman Charlie Winship (played by Treat Williams, of “Everwood” fame) who is tired of Washington politics and of special-interest lobbyist corruption. However, when he meets his constituents out on Catatonk Island, miles off the Maine coast, Winship ultimately feels reinvigorated and decides to fight once more.
The movie also stars Ryan Merriman (the recent Jackie Robinson biopic “42”), Golden-Globe winner George Hamilton (“The Godfather: Part III”), Jayne Atkinson (Netflix’s new hit “House of Cards”), and Josh Mostel (“Billy Madison”), among others.
Fred Roos, said Mrazek, is the “one who really got us the quality cast.” Roos is “someone who has made all kinds of movies;” he most famously won the Academy Award for Best Picture, alongside Tom Sternberg, Gray Frederickson, and director Francis Ford Coppola, for producing “The Godfather: Part II.”
On working with Roos, Mrazek said it was “a privilege”, because he “believed in the project” and Roos is “Hollywood royalty”.
Other exceptionally talented people helped get this movie made. On co-directing with his neighbor, Jared Martin, Mrazek had nothing but superlatives. He referred to him as “wonderfully creative – a very successful actor and director… It was really a pleasure to work with him… The two of us had value added [because] we worked really well together.”
Of course, as with any film, there were challenges along the way. The process was, according to Mrazek, “very chaotic and stressful,” though at other times “it was exciting – like a roller-coaster ride.” One challenge in particular was resolved in an interesting way. “One of the challenges,” said Mrazek, “was after 9/11, the sergeant at arms said there could be no filming in the capital.” This proved a problem, as some scenes were scripted to take place in Washington.
However, “the State Capitol in Augusta has many similarities to the style of architecture,” said Mrazek, so scenes were filmed there instead. Mrazek challenged viewers to notice the difference, while also praising the “tremendous bipartisan cooperation” of Maine’s politicians in filming the movie in Augusta.
The movie was aided by good weather, great actors, a fantastically talented co-director and crew, and Karen Carberry Warhola, the director of the Maine Film Office, who, in Mrazek’s words, was “tremendously helpful” and made the movie “so much easier to film.”
“Catatonk Blues”, which began filming in the second week of September 2013, was completed on Oct. 8, in just 20 filming days. The movie is still in post-production. There are 36 hours of Hi-Def tape to sort through and edit. “We need to mine it like a prospector,” said Mrazek.
It is Mrazek’s “hope [that] the movie gets picked up by a major distributor and shown all over the country” once it is fully completed. For a film with such a multi-faceted production, it is not surprising that “Catatonk Blues” has several fascinating themes. The movie, though fiction, is semi-autobiographical in that Mrazek “was inspired to write the story and make the film based on [his] experiences in D.C. and in Congress.” He also received inspiration from his 30 years on Monhegan Island.
“I wanted to combine the two ways of life,” he said. There are many things he would like viewers to take away from the film. “We need to think for ourselves, we need to preserve freedom of expression, and we need to preserve the way of life on an island,” said Mrazek. In the end, Mrazek said he hoped that “Catatonk Blues” was “representative of all that’s best in Maine and why I love the Midcoast.”
Many of the themes of “Catatonk Blues” are Capraesque. “Frank Capra was certainly an inspiration,” said Mrazek. He “dealt in a lot of the same types of themes.” There is even a reference in “Catatonk Blues” to Capra’s own “It’s a Wonderful Life” – which was preserved under the National Film Preservation Act in 1990 – when one of the island locals refers to the mainland as “Pottersville”.
Readers who did not get that reference now have two movies to add to their watching list. One of them is “It’s a Wonderful Life.” The other is “Catatonk Blues.”
