'Protect Our Past' Strikes Silver and Gold

Capturing historically iconic Cape Cod houses and their stories of a distant and not-so-distant past, the Shoreline Media-produced documentary “If Our Walls Could Talk: Discovery!” just received well-earned critical acclaim in the form of not one, but two Telly Awards.

The Telly Awards is a highly respected institution, recognizing and honoring excellence in television and video for screens big and small. The latest film by Protect Our Past (POP) took home Gold for “General-Not-for-profit for Non-Broadcast” and Silver for “General-Fundraising and Appeals for Non-Broadcast.”

“If Our Walls Could Talk: Discovery!” explores four historic houses across Sandwich, West Harwich and Wellfleet, their unique tales told by the newest generation of homeowners, or “shepherds,” as the film’s executive producer Ellen Briggs fondly refers to them. In the film, interviewees Tom and Madelynn Keyes, Jay Bombara, Allison Reilly-Bombara, Duncan Berry and Laurie Goldman regale the viewer with fascinating and largely unheard Cape Cod stories, ranging from the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln to the origins of the Chiquita banana company. 

POP founder Briggs’ own Chatham story dates back to the 1920s. The Shore Road windmill her great-uncle built out of old shipwrecks, and in which she spent summers as a child, was set to be demolished. 

“I call it the Queen of Hearts syndrome. Off with their heads! Just like that, they want to get rid of it,” says Briggs. Fortunately, with the help of her husband and some very supportive community members, the windmill was able to be saved and transported to her backyard, where it stands as a proud reminder of that win for historical preservation. But the windmill is just one instance of success in POP’s ongoing and widespread effort to rescue history from destruction. There’s plenty more work to be done, houses and structures to save. 

And though “If Our Walls Could Talk: Discovery!” has since been widely released online and made fully available to the public, the story isn’t over. Co-producer and writer Barbara Sillery, along with director of photography and editor Tom Chartrand, who helmed the production and brought it to fruition, yielded a plethora of additional footage, giving way to a second wind for the project. 

“We have a bounty of footage from ‘If Our Walls Could Talk,’ so much that we’re in the midst of editing a part two (‘Hidden Echoes’), which will premiere on Oct. 4 at Barnstable High School,” says creative producer David H. Allen, a longstanding veteran of the industry who’s worked on films such as “Dirty Dancing” and “In A League of Their Own.”

A place of education will serve as a particularly fitting venue to showcase part two, given Protect Our Past’s enduring mission to inform, inspire and promote historical preservation, not only for older generations, but for today’s youth, who will become tomorrow’s homeowners. In that spirit, as voiced in the film, viewers are urged to “Listen closely, as our walls do talk.”