SEBASTIAN — The Sebastian City Council voted four to one to approve $20,000 in funding for the documentary film “Feather Wars” produced by Tom Lowe of Eagle Productions in Orlando. The vote came during the Aug. 12 evening meeting of the Community Redevelopment Agency.
Councilman Eugene Wolff cast the only dissenting vote. Although Wolff was in favor of the film project, he expressed an objection to the amount of money involved with roads and signs in the community in need of attention.
Wolff added that for $20,000, he would like to get details in writing about the project, such as something that would ensure the city gets use of the film for educational and other purposes.
“Feather Wars” is a high definition, wide screen, half hour, historical film that documents the birth of national refuges that began with the establishment of Pelican Island, the first refuge in the country, by President Theodore Roosevelt on March 14, 1903. Pelican Island was a 5-acre sanctuary for birds that protected pelicans and other species from being decimated by bird hunters who stalked the birds seeking plumage for ladies hats, worn mostly in Europe. National refuges now account for approximately 153 million acres, according to Lowe.
The film was four years in the making with an $85,000 budget. Prior to the City of Sebastian contribution, Lowe indicated that he had secured between $39,000 $40,000 toward production costs.
Lowe said he has hopes for the film to be accepted by PBS. But first it must meet their mandated submission standards of being closed captioned, having errors and omissions insurance and teaser videos.
There is no guarantee that PBS will accept the film, Lowe said. However, his production company has had three other films “green-lighted” by PBS.
Lowe emphasized that the Pelican Island story is not just a regional story, but has national significance, which would improve the film’s chances in a PBS review.
Among the potential benefits to Sebastian from funding the film, Lowe said the exposure of being credited on a funding list at the beginning and end of PBS programming, exposure to 337 PBS station program directors throughout the country, and being re-run at various times, including prime time.
All an opportunity “to tell the U.S. what you have here,” said Lowe.
Councilwoman Dale Simchick said she had attended a viewing of the entire film, adding that the documentary “was informative of our history. We could not have hired a better person to shoot this.”
Simchick asked if the film could be used on Sebastian’s Web site. Lowe told the council that PBS guidelines would permit a link to the film from the city’s Web site. Lowe also said that the city could run the video on its government channel.
“It doesn’t get any better than this,” said Councilwoman Andrea Coy.
Damien Gilliams, a Sebastian resident, objected to the lack of a formal proposal from Lowe for funding the film. He added that he thinks the project does not fall under the community redevelopment criteria for which the taxpayers’ money is intended.
Gilliams suggested the Council have an attorney check to see if the project was a legal application of Community Redevelopment Area funds and table the decision.
Barbara Salmon, of the Sebastian National Resources Board, disagreed.
“What we will reap from this will be worth every penny,” she said.
