By Scott Taylor,Staff Writer

BRUNSWICK – Lewiston, its city staff and the Many and One Coalition looked pretty good to theater-goers Friday night.

Audience members at the first Maine commercial showing of Ziad Hamzeh’s documentary film “The Letter” praised the way the city handled a 2001-2002 influx of Somalis and competing rallies in January 2003.

“Did the city of Lewiston step up, or did they step up?” said theater owner John Favreau, to the applause of the nearly 100 people in the audience. Former Mayor Larry Raymond didn’t fare so well.

“I think the mayor and the City Council come out looking pretty bad,” said Auburn’s Bruce Szal, who drove up to see the movie. “But part of the reason I came tonight was to hear from the people on the inside, who could actually say what was going on.”

City Administrator Jim Bennett, Police Chief William Welch, Rachel Rodrigue of the Many and One Coalition and Cheryl Hamilton, a former city caseworker, all stayed after the film to answer questions. Favreau almost had to kick everyone out to make room for the 9 p.m. showing.

Former Mayor Kaileigh Tara did not attend as expected.

Bennett said the film was about as accurate as it could be.

“I don’t think there is any way you could show everything that happened during that time, even in 90 minutes,” Bennett said.

The 75-minute film tells the story of the 2001-02 Somali influx into Lewiston. It shows how the city reacted to the new immigrants and culminates in the Jan. 11 rallies.

The film includes footage of twin rallies held in Lewiston on Jan. 11, 2003. The sequence of the rallies – one for peace and unity, the other for hate – cuts between neo-Nazi talk of “race mixing” and pleas for peace by people including Gov. John Baldacci.

“I think this was probably the toughest six months of my life,” Bennett said. “I don’t think people really know how hard those rallies were. They were a very dangerous situation.”

But Bennett defended Raymond. In the movie, Raymond’s October 2002 letter to Somali elders, urging them to stop more Somalis from coming to Lewiston, becomes the last straw for building tensions.

“But behind the scenes, there were things happening that didn’t make it out to the public,” Bennett said. For example, Bennett, Raymond and Somali elders effectively made peace less than a week after his letter became public.

Bennett said the mayor and elders even hugged at the end of the meeting.

“But Larry is a very private guy, and he didn’t want a lot of that to come out,” Bennett said.

Police Chief Welch said he gave the former mayor credit for keeping out of the public eye.

“The thing what surprised me was the support he did receive from the public,” Welch said. Raymond easily could have used that support as a pulpit, potentially making things worse.

But Rodrigue disagreed. She said Raymond didn’t get his message across to effectively, and that made the problem worse. She also faulted him for leaving town during the January rallies to vacation in Florida.

“If I’m the mayor of Lewiston and this is the biggest thing happening here in years, I think I’d cancel my vacation,” she said.

The film will remain in Brunswick through Thursday. Filmmaker Hamzeh will be on hand for today’s 7 p.m. showing to discuss the film.

“The Letter” began making the rounds of film festivals in November 2003, when it opened at the American Film Institute’s International Film Festival in Los Angeles. The Many and One Coalition showed the movie last year to mark the anniversary of the Jan. 11 rallies. It opened in New York City in February.