What's the deal?
Part Mardi Gras, part Rio Carnival, and part Twin Peaks, the centerpiece of the 10 day Saranac Lake Winter Carnival is the Ice Palace. ICE, A Love Story focuses on the trials and tribulations of the small band of locals, and a crew of prison inmates, who build the towering structure during the wild winter of 2016. With unlimited access, the film takes you inside the planning and execution of the historic Ice Palace as Mother Nature throws the builders some wicked curves.
Dean Baker and Bill Madden working on the foundation of the 2016 Ice Palace.
The beginnings of an Ice Palace.
Dean Baker inspecting the damage.
Inmates from the Moriah Shock Correctional Facility "Hooking" the 700 lb. ice blocks.
Caperton Tissot, author of "Adirondack Ice", doing the "Pole Dance" on Lake Flower.
You'll also go inside Moriah Shock, the incarceration facility that supplies the work crews for the Ice Palace. Located 60 miles north in a former mine facility, the prison is set up like a boot camp that incorporates military style discipline with intense substance abuse and alcohol training. The six month program boasts a lower recidivism rate than conventional prisons, yet it’s one of the few shock style programs in NY state that remains open. Inmates incarcerated in January and February are enlisted to help with the Ice Palace build.
Blending archival history and contemporary documentary -- ICE, A Love Story is a film that presents small town America at its best and puts into focus a tradition and a local sense of community that's thrived since 1897.
Why Now?
This is a story that I've wanted to tell for years. So during the winter of 2016, I grabbed a camera and some sound gear and headed to Saranac Lake. I spent a month there filming with the IPW (Ice Palace Workers), the Home Energy float builders and many others. I also spent a good chunk of time filming with the inmates and staff inside the Moriah Shock Correctional Facility
Full disclosure: I still have quite a few family in the area. My great grandparents settled in the region and during my early years we'd always be heading up to the "North Country" to see relatives, swim the lakes, and be amongst some of the most beautiful country in the world.
I moved to New York City in the late '80's, got married, and began working as a film and television editor and producer. Sadly, for quite a while we didn't get up to the Adirondacks much. Over the course of the last six years, my wife and I have been going up for the grand finale -- the Parade Weekend, and having an absolute blast. Each year I think that this is a party that needs to become a film -- the characters, the ritual, the century old traditions.
With your help, it's happening.
Me, filming on the ice.
photo courtesy of Mark Kurtz
The Team
Mark C. Burns producer, cinematographer, editor
Mark Burns is a freelance editor and producer who lives and works in New York City. Since 1994, he has worked at Barwall Productions, Barbara Walters’ production company. He was lead editor for her network specials including The Ten Most Fascinating People of the Year and the Oscar Night Special. He was also a frequent editor for ABC’s 20/20 newsmagazine. He has worked extensively as a an editor for some of the biggest names in television production. Recent credits include ABC’s Lincoln Square Productions (‘Boston EMS’ for ABC), Sharp Entertainment (’90 Day Fiance’, for TLC) and Leftfield Pictures (‘Alone’ for History Channel). Other credits include programs for TLC, VH1, Sundance, A&E, History, MTV, CBS, Travel, NHL, Spike, National Geographic, Animal Planet and Discovery Channel. As producer, he has created short films and documentaries for the 3Generations Foundation, the Yele Haiti Foundation, the Criterion Collection, and AARP.
Yvette Tomlinson producer.
Yvette Tomlinson is an award-winning independent film and television producer whose long list of credits as producer and director include feature films, commercials, documentaries and television journalism. Ms. Tomlinson is currently in production on two documentaries, 'The Eagle and the Hummingbird', showcasing the track and field rivalry between Jamaican and the United States, and 'Mento: Jamaica’s Lost Music', highlighting the folk music and performers of a nearly forgotten time in Jamaica’s history. In 2008, Ms. Tomlinson co-produced the award winning documentary, 'For Love of Water'. The film highlights the many issues surrounding our world and our precious water resources. An official Sundance Film Festival selection in 2008, the film is distributed by Oscilloscope Films, and continues to be screened around the world. In 2003, Ms. Tomlinson produced the feauture-length narrative film HomeGirls on the Prowl, an official selection in competition at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. As a television producer, Ms. Tomlinson created segments for A&E’s Biography of the Year and CBS News Production’s, The Twentieth Century with Mike Wallace. She has produced a number of award-winning short films and been production- manager on numerous independent feature films.
Where We Are
After filming for a month in Saranac during the run up to the 2016 Carnival, we were able to shoot about 75% of the main story. In the interim we've been working on rough cutting the film. Now that winter is back we're going to need to head up to the North Country to get some additional material. With your help, we will be be able to kick into high gear on our post production and be able to incorporate the new round of interviews and footage into the story.
That's why we're reaching out to you -- to help us finish this project.
We also would love to hear from you if you have any archival materials lying around. If you have old photographs or film of Winter Carnivals passed, please get in touch -- we'd love to see them and maybe incorporate them into the film!
What We Need & What You Get
We're hoping to raise $45,000 here so that we can wrap up the next phase of production -- the edit. With your support, we'll be able to hire some staff and kick into high gear. Your funds will go towards photo research, finding a local composer to create a musical score, and renting out an edit space. We hope to have the story fleshed out by early summer, when we can then start to shop it around to broadcasters like PBS, and festivals, like Sundance. After getting a broadcaster or a major festival attached, it should be easier to raise the funds necessary to get the film finished and out to audiences around the world.
Thanks to our fiscal sponsorship with the Independent Filmmakers Project (IFP), your donation is 100% tax deductible. Haven't made that charitable contribution yet for the coming year? Now's your chance! Go to our IFP fundraising site here: https://fiscal.ifp.org/project.cfm/873/
The Perks
For your support, we're offering some exclusive perks like the collectible Winter Carnival buttons and posters (designed as a fund raising tool for the Winter Carnival by home town hero Garry Trudeau of Doonesbury fame), on-screen credits, access to exclusive digital downloads, tickets to private screenings in Saranac Lake and New York City, dinner and drinks with the producers and much more!
Part of my Aunt Theresa's button collection.
2016 Saranac Lake Winter Carnival button by Garry Trudeau
2016 Saranac Lake Winter Carnival poster by Garry Trudeau. (18"X 24")
More of Aunt Theresa's button collection. 1986 is her favorite.
The Impact
Born out of the flourishing commercial ice industry of the era, local contractors were first hired to design and construct the Ice Palaces beginning in 1898. In 1960, the village of Saranac Lake decided to build the Palaces using local volunteers. Soon after, crews of inmates from local prisons were enlisted to help wrangle the 700 pound blocks of ice and the modern Ice Palace crew was born!
Adirondack ice industry 1920's (Photo courtesy of Saranac Lake Public Library)
Moody Lake ice palace harvest. 1920's (Photo courtesy of Saranac Lake Public Library)
1980's Ice Palace construction (photo courtesy Marilyn and Dean Baker)
1980's Ice Palace prison crew. (photo courtesy Marilyn and Dean Baker)
Locals and inmates building 1980's Ice Palace. (photo courtesy Marilyn and Dean Baker)
Cutting the ice from Lake Flower for the 2016 Ice Palace.
ICE, A Love Story is more than just the story of the Winter Carnival and the Ice Palace -- it is the story of a tradition that has passed along through the generations. It's a story about a way of life that is becoming rare in America. As our cities swell and small towns succumb to the spread of the American mono-culture, many small communities find it hard to stay intact.
The film is also a story of redemption, as the inmates struggle to serve their six months under intense and rigorous conditions. These young men are part of an innovative program that also finds itself facing hard times as funding for private prisons threatens to end the "shock" program altogether.
Ice Palaces don't build themselves you know, and the film explores what the next generation of palace builders has in store. After all, who would really know how they'll build an Ice Palace 100 years from now?
2016 Ice Palace Workers (IPW) Local 101
The next generation. Ice Palace Workers (IPW) Rookie of the Year award winners
ICE, A Love Story is a snapshot of a moment in time -- a window into a tradition and a town that's resilient, quirky, and utterly American. With your help, we can get this film made and out to a larger audience.
Risks & Challenges
We're filmmakers and our main priority is to successfully finish the project.
After completing this next and final round of shooting, we're going to be able to shift gears into full time editing. We're aiming to have a rough cut of the film by early summer -- that means we'll be finished with the story editing. There will still be a lot of work to do and further expenses for sound mixing, color correction, and distribution. With your help, we can push ahead and wrap up the post production before pushing onto the final stages of the film.
If you would like to contact us for any reason, please go to our website (www.icealovestory.com) and send us a message.
This has been a labor of love, but we're realistic. We hope that you will be patient and wait for the perks to come as we work to finish the film.
Other Ways You Can Help
If you can't contribute, that doesn't mean you can't help:
- a) send this Indiegogo link to your friends and colleagues
- b) share the films' website with everybody http://www.icealovestory.com/
- c) share our IFP funding page https://fiscal.ifp.org/project.cfm/873/
- d) sign up for our mailing list on our website and receive periodic updates
- e) follow us on Instagram and Facebook (to come) — repost and share, share, share!
- f) talk about the project to everyone you know!
- e) write a blog about the film!