GREENE — Tonya and Ray Shevenell present their film “The Home Road” at the Araxine Wilkins Sawyer Memorial, 371 Sawyer Road, at 2 and 7 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 24.
In 1845, 19-year-old Israel Shevenell left his home in Canada and walked nearly 200 miles to Biddeford. He found work and built a new life in an American boomtown being transformed by the Industrial Revolution, and is recognized as the city’s first permanent French-Canadian settler and French voter.
In 2015, his 74-year-old great-great-grandson, Ray Shevenell, retraced the pioneering journey, walking from Compton, Quebec, to Biddeford.
Tonya Shevenell tells their stories in her first feature documentary film, an exploration of family, history and identity — and now a journey into the unexpected inevitably leads to … home.
This walk is the foundation for “The Home Road” documentary film. Layered over this adventure are narrations, interviews, archive photos and film, and stories exploring the themes of migration, movement and “home.”
Admission is free. For more information call 207-946-5311, visit sawyer-foundation.com or www.facebook.com/sawyer.foundation1937.
Ray Shevenell, “The Home Road” (Submitted photo)
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