Around the State: Fairfield County

Celebration of the Merritt Parkway’s 70^th birthday (see CPN, September/October 2008) continued in December with the unveiling of a new film about the historic road.

          “The Road Taken…The Merritt Parkway,” a documentary by Westport filmmaker Lisa Seidenberg, takes an alternately poetic and informative look at the Parkway, combining historical information, rarely-seen footage of construction and early traffic, and personal anecdotes

          Included in the cast of characters is Westport photographer Nate Gibbons, former DOT Commissioner Emil Frankel, Laurie Heiss and Peter Malkin of the Merritt Parkway Conservancy, preservationist/artist Renée Kahn, Christopher Wigren of the Connecticut Trust, and Henry Merritt, a relative of Schuyler Merritt , the Stamford Congressman for whom the Parkway is named. There are also interviews with travelers at rest areas, in local towns and at the Lakeside Diner in Stamford. “I call it ‘a people’s history,’” said Seidenberg.

          Lisa Seidenberg’s previous work as director includes a feature, “Pledge of Allegiance Blues”; also “Mongolia on the Edge of Time “, “Being Human”  and “Women Make Art”. She says that an early-morning drive along the Parkway inspired her to make the film. “I was driving and looking at the lights and the sights with my radio going and thought it was really pretty,” says Seidenberg. “I wondered if anyone had ever captured this on film. It’s not just another road.” Grants from the Merritt Parkway Conservancy and the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism supported production.