MACOMB, IL -- One upon a time, a small town guy and his friends made a documentary film about a neighboring small town with a notorious past. It’s called The Bootlegger, and it’s terrific , very well done and fascinating.
I bought a DVD at the Macomb, Il. Heritage Days event and watched it last night. Macomb is the home town of director Ryan Walker and pals. The film is based on a prize winning book The Bootlegger by retired Western Illinois University English professor John Hallwas, who is interviewed and brings valuable context to the story.
As Hallwas points out, the story is not only about the bootlegger himself but about his hometown, Colchester, Illinois, and its coal mining, bootlegging past.
The bootlegger, Henry Kelly Wagle, is said to have killed a wife, and was himself murdered in 1929, likely by a rival bootlegger. At the same time, people in Colchester loved him for his good deeds, and are not shy about saying so.
The film sets the context for these dramatic events, with photos and video from then and now, woven together in clever and original ways to show places and artifacts.
The Bootlegger is good enough to merit a POV spot on PBS. Let’s hope we hear more from its director and his colleagues.
The film's website has a link to allow watching on line, and a way to buy the DVD.
-- Elaine Hopkins
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