Fit for Film

Fit for film

Film about Summerside Armory set for premier at the end of Aug.

Ryan Quigley

Journal Pioneer

The Summerside Armory has been a lot of things in its 100-year existence.

It has been a first and second World War recruiting centre, it’s where the red cross has worked out of, boy scouts and sea cadets meetings, most recently it has become a museum and more.

Now the building, part of Summerside since 1911, will be the star of a film.

Directed by local filmmaker Susan Rodgers, of Blue Mountain Entertainment, and written by Wyatt Heritage Properties Cultural Programs Assistant Marlene Campbell the documentary will premiere Aug. 25^th at 7 P.M. in the Trinity United Church in Summerside.

The premiere will also have musical entertainment from Peter and Alexandria Gallant, vignettes and a wartime sermon reenactment by the Reverend Andrew Richardson. Refreshments will also be served.

“We want as many people as possible to turn out for it to have a nice enjoyable evening with it. I mean how often do you have a film premiere in Summerside?” laughed Campbell.

Produced by the Wyatt Heritage Properties the movie, named “Summerside Armory: Fit for Duty”, was shot over two days and follows a 100 years in Summerside Armory history, including vignettes of World War recruiting, the architect designing the building and a few others as well as narration of the history over the hour long duration.

Campbell, who has seen the film, was quite impressed with it.

“It was very gratifying because a lot of work went into it,” she said. “It’s a pretty exciting project for us because it is the 100^th anniversary we’ve applied for funding from Heritage Canada to do a number of projects and this is our big one.”

“It’s just a nice capturing of a 100 years of history in an interesting manner,” she added.

Campbell said working with Rodgers was a lot of fun.

“(Rodgers) use to be the curator for Wyatt Heritage Properties and then she went off to study film. She is actually the person who hired me when I first came here. So it’s kind of neat to come back together and work on a project like this.”

Campbell said the movie should be important to Summerside residence.

“It’s the telling of their story really. The armoury has quietly sat on that site of 33 Summer St. for 100 years but it’s played a really big role in the community.”