Join me on a journey through Union Bethel Civil War Cemetery. We’ll uncover the hidden narratives, piece together the fragments of their lives, and honor the legacy of these remarkable individuals.
Our journey on this documentary started when Rudy Von Coln gave me a tour of the Cemetery. Rudy had so much interesting information of the Cemetery I knew it had to be documented. I just wanted to make it a small project. I called Pary Tell, chair of the Lower Township Preservation Committee and ask her if she wanted to give a brief description of the cemetery on camera. Along with Rudy’s commentary, I thought we’d be done with it.
After posting about the documentary on Social Media we got some comments about how some people in the area were decedents of the Union Bethel Cemetery. And so we interviewed Janis Washington White, Wanda Wise Evelyn, Shirley Wilson, and Emily Dempsey. What a pleasure it was to learn about their experience with cemetery and the stories that were passed down to them.
We learned much about putting a story together, arranging interviews, gathering information, fact checking, and the filming and editing process.
We still have much to learn as we prepare to release our first 30+ minute documentary film. The film has already been accepted into the MLK programing at PhillyCAM and we are preparing stage the film first at local libraries in Cape May and Camden County. We have a few film festivals in mind after that.
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