Community is a Character

Pauline from 2 to 3

The locally produced film Pauline from 2 to 3 tells the story of Pauline, the 103-year-old grandmother of the film's creator Richard Rutkowski. Forest Taylor sat down with Rutkowski to learn more about the film prior to its screening at the Tom Ridge Environmental Center later this month.

I had the honor of seeing the documentary Pauline from 2 to 3 on June 21 and before the show, I sat down with director Richard Rutkowski to talk about his inspirations and goals for the film in anticipation for a private screening at the Tom Ridge Environmental Center's Big Green Screen on Aug. 21.

The documentary, which chronicles one year in the life of Rutkowski's grandmother Pauline between her 102nd and 103rd birthdays (Pauline is now 104) is what he describes as "a woman's story and a picture of Erie," juxtaposing her life and the lives of the numerous family members she has affected throughout that life with the ups and downs of her community and the city in which she has lived.

On his intentions for what he hopes to achieve with the film, Rutkowski says: "I want to tell the unexamined stories of the Greatest Generation. By which I mean women's stories," adding, "So many of the stories about the Greatest Generation are seen through the eyes of the men who went overseas to fight in the war. This is the story of one woman among the many who were taking care of the homefront during the country's most difficult times."

Filmed in a Cinema Verite, fly-on-the-wall style, Rutkowski was inspired by the films of Albert Mayles (Grey Gardens), Ross McElwee (Sherman's March) and Errol Morris (Gates of Heaven). "Those filmmakers are my teachers", he says.

He hopes that the film will emphasize the interconnectivity that individual people have with their community and their city, especially in smaller cities like Erie. "Showing one woman's life in a random neighborhood in a fairly unknown city could work to connect the various people in that community," he says. "Every house is full of people, each with their own unique lives, both interior and exterior, and those lives come together to create a community. Film allows you to be your own mirror. It can present a person's exterior and interior lives simultaneously. Pauline's life has affected the lives of so many people around her and those lives affect others and it keeps spreading out from there. Life is cyclical."

Rutkowski hopes that his film shows the deep connectivity that people have with each other and how those connections create a community, saying, "Community is a character."

Pauline from 2 to 3 will have a private screening at the Tom Ridge Environmental Center on Thursday, Aug. 21. To connect to the screening, visit paulinefrom2to3.com