Does Shelburne Falls Have a New Identity?

I could have sworn that I wrote about the filming of the movie Labor Day, http://www.recorder.com/home/6721923-95/movie-magic-is-latest-draw-in-the-falls based on a novel by Joyce Maynard of the same name.  But, if I did, I could not find the posts.  Well, that is okay, I sometimes have strange titles and strange labels for my posts, that make no sense to me when I go back to read them. So, if I did write about that, why should I think I can find it? 

The reason I would have written about Labor Day last year was because it was being filmed in Western Massachusetts, mostly Shelburne Falls, but also in the Franklin County Jail, and other areas in Massachusetts.  I followed its filming in my home town newspaper, The Greenfield Recorder http://www.recorder.com/ and I read the book, Labor Day http://www.joycemaynard.com/Joyce_Maynard/B__Labor_Day.html. I have been anticipating the release of Labor Day, http://www.deadline.com/2013/05/labor-day-movie-jason-reitman-release-date-december-25-2013/ which is apparently set for near Christmas 2013.  Why it would not be released near Labor Day 2013 is beyond me, but I think this has to do with Oscar politics, and holiday box office numbers. So, maybe, it is not beyond me.

So, today, I was reading The Greenfield Recorder again, and once again Shelburne Falls is being used as a location for a movie http://www.recorder.com/home/6721923-95/movie-magic-is-latest-draw-in-the-falls The Judge http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1872194/.  I think this is a great economic boost for Shelburne Falls, and from all reports in The Greenfield Recorder, the locals are as enamored with this cast and crew as they were with the Labor Day cast and crew. 

I think it is great that Shelburne Falls, and the surrounding area is being used for movie locations. That is so neat.

This is not the first time that movies have been filmed in Western Massachusetts http://www.mafilm.org/made-in-mass/.  The most memorable for me is Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061184/.  Another was The Edge of Darkness http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1226273/ but frankly, the movie stunk.

So, does Shelburne Falls have a new identity as a movie location?  Does two movies, two years in a row, make it so? And why do people in the film industry know about Shelburne Falls.

I have to wonder. Shelburne Falls has a very famous resident, Bill Cosby http://billcosby.com/ , who has a residential compound in Shelburne Falls.  Mr. Cosby resided in Shelburne Falls because he was a post-graduate student at the University of Massachusetts, http://www.umass.edu/ in Amherst, Massachusetts. Early on, the University of Massachusetts had liberal "university without walls" standards. Mr. Cosby could actually use some of his television programming as part of his PhD thesis material.  That is as it should be. It was so educationally about appropriate family and parenting values, and the television venue ensured it was mass marketed in a way that other educational material would not be received.

I do not know if Mr. Cosby was influential in the filming of these new movies.  If he was, I think Franklin County owes him a thank you, at least.  If not, well coincidences  are not always as coincidental as we believe.

So, now, I have another movie for which I have to anticipate the release.