Monroe Hill - Remembering James Monroe

Streaming video - 2015

“Monroe Hill” unearths the history of the site that contains the last remaining structures of the late 18th century southern plantation. These surviving structures are silent witnesses to Monroe’s struggle as a farmer and a politician from the late 1780’s until the laying of the cornerstone at the University of Virginia on October 6, 1817.. The film includes the chapter of James Monroe's life as Minister to France and his relationship with Thomas Paine, Tom Wolfe, Adrienne de La Fayette, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton.. “Monroe Hill” brings to the foreground a previously unexplored period of the life of James Monroe featuring extensive documentation, independent research, and inter...views with experts. Rare film footage from D. W. Griffith’ “America” and “Orphans of the Storm” was used to create a sense of verisimilitude. “We were able to obtain prints of excellent quality on both of these films, and they served to portray the prevailing phenotype in colonial Virginia at the turn of the 18th century” explained director Eduardo Montes-Bradley, who also affirmed that “These early American films -shot in and around Williamsburg in the late 1910’s- are more powerful than a reenactment. The texture and the overall miss-en-scene of the period dissolves flawlessly with the narration creating a sense of documental continuity.”. more