Seriously Moving Images

View The Home Town Paper at the NFB.ca site

This thoughtful and interesting vintage documentary examines the role of a weekly newspaper in a small town, and its relationship with the community that it serves. The paper in question is The Vernon News, and the town depicted is Vernon, in BC’s Okanagan Valley. The film shows how the newspaper’s contents are fashioned from the atmosphere, daily life, incidents, and concerns of a small town. 22 minutes.

“Following the weekly editor of one such hometown paper for a day, the film tracks the local events that will be news tomorrow. In town, we meet the people whose names are scattered through the pages: the mayor and his hope of a new city hall, the local angler who breaks a record, and even the lacrosse team, sharing spectators with the band concert in the park.” (from the NFB’s online catalogue description)