LANGDON, N.H. – On Thursday, June 11, the Bellows Falls Opera House will premiere “Contenders,” a locally-produced documentary film telling the underdog history of the Fall Mountain Regional High School (FMRHS) football program. The film was created and directed by FMRHS alumnus and former football player Brantley Palmer, a documentary filmmaker who had been contemplating the project going back to 2022.
Being a librarian and archivist, Palmer enjoys the process of researching and developing the stories of his documentary projects. “Researching and finding resources is usually one of my favorite parts of a project,” Palmer said in a recent interview. “Although finding footage pre-1994 was difficult, and it did prove to be very challenging at times.
“I’d been following [current head coach Orion Binney’s] tenure as head coach of Fall Mountain football for a few years, and I had started thinking about the turnaround he’d made with the program and how it would make a great story,” Palmer explained. “I was just finishing my first documentary [“Everything to Entertain You: The Story of Video Headquarters”] and I would often be asked what other projects I had in the works, and would mention the idea of the ‘underdog sports’ documentary.”
After presenting his idea to Binney and getting him and the school onboard, the fall of 2023 through the summer of 2024 was spent getting all the legal permissions in line. From there, Palmer spent time filming from those summer practices through the end of the 2024 season.
“The production of the film fell mostly to me, as I filmed every game and attended two practices every week for the entire season,” Palmer said. “However, I did have camera help during games from Jennifer Chick-Ruth, Ben Conant, Josh Rose, and Jeff Coulter, and my editor, Stephen Parkhurst, was immensely helpful in crafting the story out of the hundreds of hours of footage.
“Stephen also captured all the amazing drone footage in the film, and I’d like to also give huge credit to our composer, Dustin Krefft, for helping to shape the film. Additionally, the only song I licensed for the documentary came from Fall Mountain graduate Gordon Turrisi, of the Skip Band, is called ‘Blood on the Mountain,’ and kicks in just as we roll the end credits.”
Several prominent individuals were interviewed for the documentary, including the aforementioned coach Binney and current coach James Tremblay; Wildcat players from the early days of the program, including Dan Shaughnessy, Bob Hingston, and Jeff Lassells; as well as players from the 1977 team that went to the state championship game, including Matt Jurkoic, Bill Allen, and Kevin Tallman.
“What great memories I have of the CVL [Connecticut Valley League],” Tallman said in a recent interview. “We were competitors on ‘game day,’ and then friends later that night.”
“I also got to interview Stan Jurcoic, the quarterback from the 1980 undefeated team, as well as a few other coaches, including the aforementioned Tallman, John Loupa, and Bill Ranauro. Player moms Perrin Riendeau and Kelly Patch represent the mothers of players who fill the stands and all the amazing work that all the families and community members do to support the team.”
“Contenders” will premiere at the Bellows Falls Opera House on Thursday, June 11, at 6 p.m. To learn more, visit www.bellowsfallsoperahouse.com.
CORRECTION: The printed edition of the paper states an incorrect date at the end of this article. The correct date and time for the premiere of “Contenders” is Thursday, June 11, at 6 p.m., at the Bellows Falls Opera House. We apologize for this error.