Date of Submission

Spring 2024

Academic Program

Film and Electronic Arts; Historical Studies

Project Advisor 1

Richard Aldous

Project Advisor 2

Jacqueline Goss

Abstract/Artist's Statement

I have always had a passion for history and have spent my years in school studying ancient and often far-away civilizations, but I have yet to look at the history closest to me. Where I’m from is a massive part of who I am, and discovering that history is just as important as the topics I’ve learned in class. My research brought me to discover the rich history of Northport, New York, a small town on the north shore of Long Island, and my hometown. My love of history and film initially had me hoping to make a documentary about the history of Northport, so I began my research. However, through this research, my project started to shift. I discovered a couple of high-profile figures who had spent significant time in Northport, and I was intrigued. Clearly, my love for the town was not a sentiment only shared by me if these other figures found themselves drawn to Northport as well. The most notable of these figures was Jack Kerouac. I had not known too much about him prior to my research other than that I knew he was a nomadic figure and that he wrote the acclaimed novel On the Road. This distance and unbiased view of him as a person and a writer worked in my favor as I worked through the historical puzzle of why he stayed in Northport for so long and why he only wrote one book during that time.

I’ve done many research projects over the years, but this one is the crown jewel. I couldn't just rely on journals and books online to conduct my research from the confines of Annandale-on-Hudson. I needed to physically go home to Northport to sort through the archives at the Northport Library and Northport Historical Society in person, as well as film on location. Among my findings included one piece that really struck me, which was the hours of audio interviews that the Northport Library conducted with Kerouac, who notoriously hated being interviewed. It truly was the environment of Northport that opened him up, even though he was facing a lot of personal issues and problems at the time. It’s these audios that come alive and what solidified to me that this work needed to be a documentary. Choosing to combine both of my majors into this one documentary work was something I pondered for a while before choosing to do a joint senior project. The power that these audio have paired with actual footage of Northport holds an emphasis that I don’t think I could have reached with the written word alone. This project truly felt like it encompassed all the learning I've done these past four years. It was quite a joy to be able to utilize all my skills to culminate in this final work and feel such comfort within the marriage of these two disciplines of history and film. This town, Kerouac, and I exist as the main characters in this documentary. It was my goal to do all three justice.

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