Documentarian brings air of reality to PBS series ‘Colonial House’ aims for accurate portrayal of life in 17th-century America

Documentarian brings air of reality to PBS series
‘Colonial House’ aims for accurate portrayal of life in 17th-century America
BY KATE PICHEL
Correspondent

JAMIE BLOOMQUIST Kristi Jacobson, a Rumson native and documentary filmmaker, directed three episodes for PBS’s reality/history series “Colonial House,” which airs this week.

Kristi Jacobson had to rough it for much of her latest project. Still, she did not have it as bad as the people on the other side of the camera.

The Rumson native and documentary filmmaker recently handled the directing duties for three episodes of PBS’s latest reality/history series "Colonial House," which began airing this week.

The series is set in 1628 and documents people living in a colonial village stripped of their modern comforts for four months.

"I was drawn to this project because I have great respect for PBS programming and was immediately intrigued by the concept," Jacobson said. "With the proliferation of ‘reality’ programming, I thought this series would pose an interesting challenge to me as a documentarian: to find the balance between history and entertainment and to explore the genre of reality TV for the first time.

"Also, I have never before worked on a series," Jacobson said, "so I was attracted to the opportunity to work on a big-budget, high-profile, eight-part series, and looked forward to being a part of a large production team."

The series was filmed in Machiasport, Maine, three hours northeast of Bangor. Cast and crew alike had to brave the bitter cold, but at least the filmmakers could retire to some indoor plumbing.

The people living as the colonists in 1628 did not have that luxury. On one of the last nights of shooting, Jacobson stayed overnight in the colony and said that she was glad she only had to do it once.

When it came to the other necessities of life, particularly eating, she was a more willing participant in the colonial lifestyle.

Part of what made sharing the food with the "colonists" easier was that they were so proud of some of their creative recipes, having so little to work with.

"Their diet was something they consistently complained about and struggled with — it consisted mostly of goat’s milk, salted beef and cod, and lots of peas and oats," Jacobson said. "At least they had beer to wash it down with — beer was more commonly drunk than water in colonial times."

While the food may have had limited appeal, other aspects of colonial life proved far more difficult to confront.

"People with diverse religious and political viewpoints faced the rigidity of daily life in the 17th century," said Jacobson. "And for women, the social structure was especially difficult: in the 17th century, women had no vote in colony affairs and were essentially chained to their hearths. They were incredibly important to the survival of the colony, and worked extremely hard, but they had no voice. Some strong-willed women in the colony found this especially challenging, but not surprisingly, they found ways to let their voices be heard."

Ironically, Jacobson had to do more multi-tasking on this project with a bigger crew of about 20-25 people than her experiences with crews of only three people.

"For me, it was like shooting three movies at once," said Jacobson. "It was all very jigsawed. We were working all the time; there was nothing else to do. It forced me to be really efficient because I had to do so much."

Her experience directing for the series had numerous parallels to what she had done in her documentaries, possibly because of its goal of accurately portraying the struggles of the "colonists."

"I don’t think this series aims to give any clear-cut answers to the age-old questions about the roots of our nation, but I do hope it will challenge viewers to think more critically about the founding of our nation, the intentions of the colonists and the evolution and current policies of our country."

The filmmakers had to forgo some historical accuracy. "Four hundred years ago, the colony would have thrived as a fishing- or lumber-trade-focused colony, but now things have changed, and this provided a challenge," said Jacobson, referring to the destruction of all the trees.

Another challenge, according to Jacobson, "was deciding what to film and what story lines to follow because there was a lot going on at all times." There were as many as 25 people at some points.

"Because of my background in cinéma vérité filmmaking, it was extremely important to me that the filming was driven by the participants’ lives, not the reverse. Once the participants developed a rhythm of life on the colony, and got used to our camera and crew, the relationship became surprisingly similar to any other filmmaker-subject relationship," said Jacobson. "The colony quickly took on a life of its own, and we were often surprised by the twists and turns. Particularly, when we arrived one day to learn that one of the colonists had gone AWOL!"

Currently, Jacobson is back to working with a small crew and producing another independent documentary with her production company Catalyst Films. However, she did not rule out returning to series work again.

"They’re two very different experiences but both build to my tool box and provide me with different skills," she said.

She values her newfound ability to combine the need to excel under pressure learned from working on a big budget series with the creativity allowed on indie projects.

The eight-part series Colonial House began this week, airing on Monday and Tuesday. It will continue on Monday and Tuesday, May 24 and 25 from 8-10 p.m. on PBS (Channel 13).

Episodes 1-4 will be rebroadcast Sunday, May 23, noon-4:30 p.m.

Episodes 5-8 will be rebroadcast Sunday, May 30, noon-4:30 p.m.

Jacobson directed episodes 2, 4 and 8.