Goliath wears cement shoes in Two Square Miles
BY MARLI GUZZETTA INDEPENDENT ARTS EDITOR
It used to be in America that corporations were the hands that fed small towns. The opening of a large plant or office meant steak and potatoes, Friday night movies and better Christmases for the people in its immediate area.

But as corporations have become more self-sustaining and globally oriented, it is now possible for a corporation to inhabit a town while requiring little in the way of workers and giving little in return. This was the realization - a generational shift - that came to the residents of Hudson, N.Y., location of a fight to keep out a multinational coal-fired cement plant and also the location of the documentary "Two Square Miles," screening at the Nantucket Film Festival this week.

The struggle divided the town, which is located along the Hudson River and was settled by Nantucket merchants in the 18th century.

"The argument against the plant was an argument for the health of the community, and the environment, especially the river, and for the view shed," summarized Beth Poague, the film's associate producer and editor. "The argument for the plant was an argument for jobs, for the idea that it would bring vitality to the town ... But once the groups started doing research into the company's application to the state for permits, they started learning there really weren't new jobs; they were going to bring workers they already had."

The conflict is applicable on a nationwide scale, according to Poague.

"In the 1960s and 1970s, when so many families were working for the plant, people were making good wages and having good lives and going on vacation and owning homes and putting kids through school - the collective town remembers the idea that the cement plant was good," Poague explained. "And in these kinds of fights, which are happening all over the country, the important thing that needs to be brought up is that it's not always cold hard facts but history that plays a role in people's positions."

Initially, Director Barbara Ettinger ("Martha and Ethel") began filming in Hudson - a former whaling port and one-time capital of prostitution - with the intention of getting to better know her community. But when multi-national corporation St. Lawrence Cement began a campaign several years ago to build a coal-fired cement plant in Hudson, her focus shifted to the emerging conflict.

"But it isn't a typical small-townfights corporation story; there's life to it," said Poague. "First and foremost, it's about the people, as opposed to the fight. It's about people fighting for home and town and quality of life."

Those people include Quintin. Elected to alderman at a young age, "Quintin went with the old guard as he was learning the process of local politics. He was kind of going with status quo," Poague said. "As he began to gain confidence and learn, he makes this big transition in the film, which I think is kind of extraordinary."

The documentary doesn't seek to compartmentalize the citizens of Hudson as "small town" archetypes, but prides itself on "peeling back the layers" of diversity in Hudson's ranks.

Former journalist with bylines in Esquire and Spin, Sam Pratt "spearheaded"

the fight against the plant. Co-founder of the grassroots organization Friends of Hudson, which grows from 40 to over 4,000 in the course of the film, he was something of an upstart, locking horns with local politicians in his battle against the plant.

Also in the film is local stateswoman Linda Mussman who, along with her partner Claudia Bruce, campaigns to inspire all Hudson citizens to attend Common Council meetings and realize the importance of their vote.

(On Thurs., June 15 at 6 p.m. Pratt, Mussman and Bruce are all slated to

attend a Q&A session at Brant Point Books, 17 North Beach Street. Call the store at 228-5856 for more information. To read about other Hudson residents, go to the film's Web site: www.twosquaremiles.com.)

"One of the things this film does is make you want to go to city council meetings; it makes you realize you can have a voice, and your voice can make a difference," Poague said. "Me and a lot of my friends didn't think or don't think what we used to think - that when you get out of college and you're so idealistic, you can make a difference. But this film says you can."

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