Bringing the ‘History and Mystery’ Book to Life

Not long after the Bristol Hills Historical Society published its book History and Mystery: The Folklore and Legends of the Bristol Hills in the spring of 2023, and we experienced its warm embrace by the community in the form of a rousing book-launch event and robust sales that eventually topped 1,000 copies in its first 18 months, we began planning a video accompaniment: readings from the book, with animated versions of Anna Overmoyer’s lush watercolors and behind-the-scenes commentary by the book’s creators.

Like the book, the video was the brainchild of Historical Society board member John Holtz, who tells how a chance meeting with Overmoyer at an art show led to his commissioning a painting of a character he imagined inhabiting his South Bristol property. He was so enthralled with that experience that he convinced his fellow board members to embark on a publishing venture with Overmoyer in which local residents and businesses would commission paintings from her, telling stories about their favorite places, events, or lore, and those stories and paintings would then be published together in book form.

This time, Holtz’s partner in seeing his vision through was Lenore Friend at Finger Lakes Community College, who enlisted the talents of videographer Jay Gillotti to animate scenes from the book and record the readings and interviews with Holtz, Overmoyer, and the book’s editor, Christopher Bennem, who memorably calls the book “a love letter to our region.” Holtz and Friend also enlisted local folk musicians The Marion Band to perform the video’s original music, recorded in FLCC studios.

The video features readings of 11 of the book’s stories, all set to The Marion Band’s music (with one exception: the story titled “The Music Lingers,” about the area’s storied church congregations, is set to organ music performed by former Bristol town supervisor Bob Green).

The video made its debut on November 9, 2024, at Rochester Museum and Science Center’s Cumming Nature Center, an event attended by more than 125 people. In addition to two showings of the video, our town historian Beth Thomas moderated a panel discussion about the project with the book’s creators — Holtz, Overmoyer, and Bennem — and FLCC’s Lenore Friend.

how to view the video after the premiere

After the initial screening, Finger Lakes TV will broadcast the video on its network daily at 7 a.m. and at 4 and 8 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays through the end of 2024. Finger Lakes TV is available on Spectrum Cable channel 1304 in the western Finger Lakes, Roku, a 24/7 webstream at fingerlakestv.org/live, and the Cablecast app for Apple and Android.

Here’s a photo of the panel discussion (photo courtesy of Peter Blackwood).

VIDEO CREDITS

Video sponsored by Stan Steele Agency, Inc., 55 State Street, Bloomfield, NY 14469. (585) 657-6101 Steeleagency.com

Video Co-Producers: John Holtz, Bristol Hills Historical Society Board of Directors; Lenore Friend, Director of PR and Communications, Finger Lakes Community College

Videography, editing and animation by Jay Gillotti

Production Assistance: Hugh Laird

Theme song “Sunset” is an original instrumental by the Marion Band: Emily Nicholas, Mary Nicholas, Brett Donaldson, Dylan Carey

“Faith of our Fathers,” a hymn by Frederick William Faber, was performed by Robert Green, organist

Featuring readings from the book History and Mystery: The Folklore and Legends of the Bristol Hills, a project of the Bristol Hills Historical Society: John Holtz, General Editor; Anna Overmoyer, Illustrator; Christopher Bennem, Development Editor

Music Recording at the Finger Lakes Community College music recording studios by Landon D. Ingersoll and Geoffrey Smith, FLCC Professor of Music

Storytellers: John Holtz, Christopher Bennem, Anna Overmoyer, Beth Thomas

Audio recording at Finger Lakes Community College podcast studio

Watercolors by Anna Overmoyer

Bristol Hills drone images courtesy of Chris DeTurk

Interviews conducted at Glen Hollow Wine Country Cottage, South Bristol, N.Y.

A production of Finger Lakes Television, a community media service based at Finger Lakes Community College 

Return to the main page for information about ordering copies of the History and Mystery book.