It’s not often that I get the experience of watching a film that was made literally in my own back yard. Well, maybe not literally, but within five miles of my home. Hide Away, originally called A Year in Mooring, is such a film.
It was filmed almost entirely at Bowers Harbor, a little harbor on the Old Mission Peninsula, an 18-mile stretch of land jutting into Lake Michigan just north of Traverse City, Michigan.
I was raised on a cherry farm on the peninsula (my two brothers still farm), and now my husband and I are raising our two kids here. It’s definitely a place close to my heart, since my family goes back several generations. I actually started an Old Mission Peninsula site a while back. Go check it out, even though it’s sorely neglected. If I ever win the lottery, I’ll kick back and spend more time on the Old Mission site/book.
One of the big things over the past decade or two has been the renaissance of wineries and vineyards in northern Michigan. We still have a lot of cherry and apple orchards, but as every entrepreneur knows, it’s good to diversify, especially in a year like this one where weather conditions left us few cherries on the trees. And, of course, the water is a big draw. We have our own stretch of beach, which comes in super handy during hot summer days — or any day really.
Which leads me to Hide Away. I wrote a review for A Traveler’s Library last week, but to summarize, it’s about a guy (Josh Lucas) who tries to put his life back together by restoring an old boat moored at Bowers Harbor. The boat in the film, the Hesperus, was played by a boat named Champion, provided by the Maritime Heritage Alliance in Traverse City. A fundraiser screening was held at the State Theatre in May, which is really cool.
Hide Away won the grand jury prize for cinematography at the 2012 SXSW Film Festival. Check out the trailer and you’ll see why.
Leave a Reply