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Now We Are Alerted…

Peekskill Riots Finale Now Streaming!

Fireside E-Chat

A Series Now Complete…

The premiere screening of the fifth and final Peekskill Riots episode took place in my hometown of Putnam Valley, a stone’s throw away from where the rioters gathered before the second planned Paul Robeson concert on September 4th, 1949. It had been a while since I had been in PV, but coming back to it with my mind only on presenting the aftermath of those horrific events made me realize just how much I had changed as a human being since this journey began.

When I started researching the Peekskill Riots, I was in my junior year of college, freshly shaven, and still living with my folks in PV. I was fascinated and frustrated to discover such an important story in my childhood backyard that had been left to fade into obscurity. There was never a question in my mind as to “if” I should devote myself to telling this story; it just had to be done. In that moment, I believed myself to be a recent discoverer of this history, with no other attachments to it. 1,308 days later (3 years, 6 months, and 25 days), I now report this to not be true. I don’t believe that an external force drove me to make this series, but I do believe that my experiences as someone who grew up in this region put me on a course that made an obsession with this story inevitable.

I am 1/4 Ashkenazi Jewish via my father, and although my relationship with religion is practically non-existent, to those who weren’t Jewish—in particular, my conservative white Christian neighbors and schoolmates—I was a Jew. The flip side of this was that I grew up on a dilapidated farm that made upper-class liberals look at me as “white trash”. Simply put, I’ve had a foot in both worlds, but have never truly felt connected to either one. The power of hindsight makes it clear to me that the discovery of these events, when a towering icon such as Paul Robeson came to my small corner of the world and spoke out for civil rights and class consciousness in the face of a mob made up of the ideological or literal ancestors of my neighbors, had a profound impact on me.

Since then, my goals have been simple: meet the people where they are at, and tell them the complete story. The success of this has been wilder than my imagination could ever predict, with over a hundred screenings and thousands of viewers in person, and hundreds of thousands of views across social media. For such an uncompromising project that has purposefully refused to fit the confines of traditional media, I see this as a tremendous success. What the future has in store for me, we’ll find out soon enough. I can safely say, however, that this journey has been the most challenging yet rewarding experience of my life. For as long as I am alive, I will fight to ensure this story never again fades back into obscurity.

For those who have been here since the beginning, and to those who have just joined us, I would not be here without you. Thank You. - JSB

BTS on our Shorts!

A large part of our output consists of short videos on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. These videos have a similar development process to our long-form documentaries, and come with limitations that make producing them a unique challenge.

It starts with an idea. The inspiration for a short can come from anything: our own pet interests, suggestions from followers or friends, even a midnight Wikipedia binge. Once we’ve researched a topic, we get to work on a script. This is the most challenging stage, since short-form platforms have strict time limits—often 3 minutes max. Thus, it boils down to the economy of the line: how do we say everything we want to say, with the most amount of detail as possible, while staying under that 3-minute time limit? This could mean substituting words and phrases like "approximately" for “about,” or even omitting entire sections for the sake of time and relevance.

As much as possible, we try to film on location at a site relevant to the story being told. Our video about the Tarrytown Lighthouse, for example, would be much less impactful if we didn’t film at the lighthouse. However, some topics—such as our video about the John Frum movement in the Pacific—require us to be creative, like filming in front of tall bamboo and wearing an aloha shirt to give a “tropical” feel. When we’re on location, we try to get a relevant structure, landscape, monument, or sign in frame behind me while I’m speaking. For the Kensico Dam video, I decided to film on the ground to show the scale of the structure, but also at the top to show the reservoir behind it, bouncing back between the two shots to present the two sides of the dam.

In the end, it all comes together in the edit, where we clean up the footage and audio we captured and add additional footage, motion graphics, and other supplementary materials in order to create a concise, informative, and entertaining video. Once we are satisfied with the final product, we schedule it for upload so that on every weekday at 3:15 pm, a new short video is released!

Despite the limitations of the format, our short-form content has become an essential part of the JSB production schedule. It enables us to explore topics that might not otherwise have enough background for a full documentary, and gives our fans bite-sized content to enjoy between the releases of our documentary features. 

Book of the Month…in my opinion.

“The Old Leather Man” by Dan W. LeCuca

Search your local library’s catalog or your favorite bookstore with the title, author, or ISBN of this book.

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0819568627

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0819568625

Despite making my documentary on the Leatherman nearly 4 years ago, I still have a strong fondness for this mysterious vagabond. After a recent string of Leatherman screenings, I was drawn back to Dan W. DeLuca’s superb book, which paved the way for new generations to discover this figure.

While Mr. DeLuca provides an excellent introduction for those unfamiliar with the Leatherman story, the majority of the book consists of newspaper articles from the late 1800s. Some articles are detailed accounts of his interactions with locals or the structures he chose to camp within, while others may be as brief as a single sentence, simply detailing his habitual comings and goings. Organized in chronological order, DeLuca presents the Leatherman story from the perspective of those who interacted with him directly, from the first known article published by local papers to the New York Times article reporting his tragic death from cancer. This creates a grounded retelling of the Leatherman that allows for the humanity of this figure, as well as those he encountered, to be put front and center. I consider this to be a refreshing departure from other presentations that attempt to cast the Leatherman as “mythical” or “legendary”. Even the recent New York Times article by Sam Anderson fell short by describing the Leatherman as “a real-life Sasquatch”—as though this real-life man is only interesting if we describe him as a cryptid. In many ways, this was how more disrespectful papers presented the Leatherman during his lifetime, which prompted outrage from residents who had come to adore the Leatherman.

Indeed, the brilliance of DeLuca’s book is how it frankly presents all perspectives on the Leatherman as reported by the various papers between the Hudson and Connecticut Rivers. Through these articles, you can see the variety of opinions on the figure and how they changed over time. It is also fascinating to see how external forces impact or reshape opinions on the Leatherman. The introduction of “Tramp Laws” resulted in a sharp divide in the region as to how homeless individuals, such as the Leatherman, should be treated, either with compassion or with violent action. My favorite articles, however, cover the infamous Blizzard of 1888, describing in great detail how life in many communities was brought to a grinding halt. Through each article, it is asked whether or not the Leatherman survived, a question that is eventually answered when he miraculously appeared with custom-built snowshoes, asking for food at his routine stop in Southington, CT.

It is quite unfortunate that Dan W. DeLuca is no longer with us to enjoy the resurgence of the Leatherman story, but it should be made clear that this would not have happened without his tireless work to uncover and preserve this amazing story. Whether you are a Leatherman buff or completely unfamiliar with the story, this book is an amazing journey into the mid-1800s northeast, when communities were able to bond with one another through their shared appreciation of the Old Leatherman.

Humbled and honored to be able to do what I do…all thanks to you.

-Jon Scott Bennett