Maine Film Bolstered By $10,000
By Bonnie Washuk, Staff Writer
Lewiston Sun Journal - March 13, 2008
AUBURN - A documentary about a Lewiston mother who became a gun-law activist after her son killed himself with a shotgun has won a distribution grant.
The Paul Robeson Fund of New York has awarded a $10,000 grant to the Maine documentary, "There Ought to Be A Law," allowing the film greater exposure.
The documentary features Cathy Crowley of Lewiston, who in May 2004 found her 18-year-old son, Laurier Belanger Jr., dead in his apartment after he killed himself with a shotgun he bought at Wal-Mart.
The next February Crowley was at the State House testifying for a law to create a 10-day waiting period for anyone under 22 to buy a gun. A wait time could have made a difference in her son not acting on his then-undetected depression, she said.
Crowley testified she didn't want what happened to her son to happen to others. She recalled the last phone message he left her, the agony of finding him, and of living with that memory.
The National Rifle Association and the Sportsman's Alliance of Maine testified against the proposal, questioning what good it would do. Legislators didn't pass the law.
In the following years, Crowley made more trips to the State House to speak for similar proposed laws. They too were defeated.
Filmmakers captured the struggle among the gun lobby, gun-law advocates and politicians. "There Ought To Be A Law" was co-produced by Anita Clearfield and Geoffrey Leighton of Durham, and Shoshana Hoose of Portland.
The 55-minute film was an official selection of the Maine International Film Festival and received the Maine Film Academy's 2007 Groundbreaking Activist Leadership Award.
The Paul Robeson grant will allow DVD copies of the film to be given away to teachers and others, Clearfield said. A screening will be held at a social studies teacher conference at the Augusta Civic Center on April 2. Two screenings and panel discussions will be held April 3 in the Boston area, and on April 9 at the University of Vermont.
For more information or to arrange screenings, go to www.thereought2bealaw.com, or call 207-751-4848.
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