350th DOCUMENTARY IS IN THE WORKS

Around East Hampton's Twelve Thousand Years In Sixty Minutes

Twelve thousand years is a lot of territory to cover in a 60-minute film, but Victor Teich, Genie Chipps Henderson, and Fred Cammann have taken on the job in conjunction with East Hampton Town's 350th anniversary.

Their documentary, "East Hampton: From the Ice Age to the Year 1998 A.D.," looks at much of the town's known history, beginning with the glacier that literally shaped the South Fork and ending with some of the people who make East Hampton what it is today.

"We're handling World War I in 10 seconds, with a playing of 'Over There,' " Mr. Teich said last week.

Truth be told, the glacier, too, will have only a "cameo role." But because it so affected the region's topography, which today helps to determine its very lifestyle, he thinks it deserves at least a mention.

Mr. Teich came up with the idea and is producing the film. Ms. Henderson, the president of LTV, is writing the script, and Mr. Cammann, a retired film and video producer, is directing. The actor Eli Wallach has agreed to narrate the documentary.

Various local historians and experts will illuminate particular periods of history as the film speeds through the ages.

On Friday, for example, Mr. Teich met with Ron Ziel, a railroad historian, who will discuss the advent of Long Island Rail Road service in East Hampton in 1896, and what that meant for the town. David Buckhout, a retired East Hampton High School earth science teacher, will deal with the glacier. James Devine, a descendant of the Montauketts, and Robert Pharaoh, considered by many to be the tribe's chief, will talk about early Native American inhabitants of the South Fork.

Averill Dayton Geus will discuss Home, Sweet Home. Sharlene Hartwell will address the early African American experience in East Hampton. And Kathy Tucker, historian of the Eastville Historical Society, will discuss the racially and ethnically mixed community centered around the Eastville section of Sag Harbor during the village's whaling years.

Charles Squires, whose great-grandfather fought with an East Hampton contingent in the Civil War, will share letters the Union soldier sent home to his wife from the front lines. The artist Ralph Carpentier will cover the 19th-century art community here, while Helen Harrison will talk about the Abstract Expressionists who congregated in Springs in the '40s and '50s.

East Hampton's early days as a playground for the wealthy will be covered in part by Honoria Donnelly, whose parents Gerald and Sara Murphy ran with the Maidstone Club crowd in the early 1900s.

The film will also touch on the American Revolution, Prohibition and East Hampton's long if not honorable bootlegging history, the Hurricane of '38, the literary community, and the Great Depression.

The filmmakers have enlisted Serena Seacat, the director of CTC Theater Live, to find actors to play some key figures in the town's history, and have begun interviews with other participants who will create short contemporary segments of the documentary. Five local historians, Dorothy King, Carleton Kelsey, Karen Hensel, Trevor Kelsall, and Sherrill Foster, have been particularly helpful in gathering material and shaping research, Mr. Teich said.

The film will be shot with a digital camera for a high-quality product. Shooting is expected to begin in late May, and the project should be complete by the second weekend in October, when East Hampton's Main Street will be closed off for the big anniversary parade.

Almost all those involved with the project, including the producer, director, and writer, are volunteers. The documentary will become the property of the 350th Anniversary Committee, which is funding it.

Mr. Teich hopes to show the film in one of the cinemas at the East Hampton movie theater over Columbus Day weekend. Copies of it will be sold to the public.

He described the documentary as "a new slant on the old hat," one that aims to answer the question "What is the real East Hampton?" Many people grew up hearing the stories it will tell, others have picked them up here and there, but this, said Mr. Teich, will put it all in one package.

CARISSA KATZ