(upbeat jingle) (upbeat music) - See how water and rock inspire the ceramic sculptures of Laura Cannamela.

Producer Anthony Vertucci shows that documentaries can tell good history, and catch a performance from Justin Friello.

It's all ahead on this episode of AHA, A House for Arts.

- [Announcer] Funding for AHA has been provided by your contribution and by contributions to the WMHT venture fund.

Contributors include The Leo Cox Beach Philanthropic Foundation, Chet and Karen Opalka, Robert and Doris Fischer Malesardi, The Alexander & Marjorie Hover Foundation, and The Robison Family Foundation.

- At M & T Bank, we understand that the vitality of our communities is crucial to our continued success.

That's why we take an active role in our community.

M & T Bank is pleased to support WMHT programming that highlights the arts, and we invite you to do the same.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Hi, I'm Lara Ayad, and this is AHA, A House for Arts, a place for all things creative.

Let's send it right over to Matt for today's field segment.

(soft music) - I'm at the Kinderhook Creek here in Valatie, New York, and it's right here where artist Laura Cannamela found the inspiration for her work.

How so?

Let's find out.

- I live very close to a gorge where the Kinderhook Creek flows through.

It's a wonderful, dynamic, and a very inspiring landscape.

I just love looking at the way the striations on the rock and the interconnectedness of the rocks and the water, the way they affect each other.

So I look at that a lot, and I also think about how small details in the nature that I find there also reflect the larger topography of the area.

I'm making these rocklike sculptures.

They might sometimes look like water.

They often look like the landscape that I've experienced around here, and then also sometimes in my travels to other parts of the country or the world.

Before I had been doing ceramics, I worked mostly in paper.

The paper started first by making things that were inspired by very small, miniature paintings, so Persian miniatures, or Japanese illustrations for The Tale of Genji, which I did a large series on.

I was cutting through a lot of layers of paper to get these papery leaf sculptures, and as I was cutting, there was this technique that was used in Japanese painting which is to give a perspective as if you're looking down through clouds.

And so I found that I really loved cutting the clouds, and layers and layers and layers to cut these clouds.

And so, eventually, I kind of focused on just the clouds, but then it became topographical.

So then I realized I was really doing a landscape out of the paper.

Cutting through layers of paper.

Sometimes I'd get one done a year, and I was working full-time.

I taught ceramics and sculpture, both on the college level and then I taught for, oh, over 20 years at my local high school, Ichabod Crane.

So I started to explore ways that I could use ceramics to get some of the same layering technique and some of the same sculptural effects that I was getting in paper, but at a shorter amount of time.

(upbeat music) I don't do any specific drawing for the pieces that I'm making.

I have layers of clay, slabs of clay laid out.

- So this looks like a giant sandwich, (Laura chuckles) a submarine.

You've got your different layers of meat in there, and it looks really tasty, and you're just gonna rip it and tear it.

- [Laura] Oh, yeah.

- [Matt] Transform it.

- I'm just gonna transform it.

I alter it, and then I change it, and then I tear it, and then I, (chuckles) and then I throw it on the floor.

No, I mean, I do a lot of things to these to make them turn into that.

- [Matt] A lot of bags.

- A lot of bags to keep the clay from drying out until the work is done and what needs to be dried out.

What I would do is cut strips of this off and then assemble them.

So you can see where there's different clay, where there's different colors, you can see those striations.

This is in progress, very much in progress.

I'll do a first firing in my electric kiln that is here, but then I bring it to kilns in Columbia County, at the Okeydokey Studio.

The wood firing completes the work.

(soft music) All the colors that you see, other than the very small amount of glaze that's running down the center, that was all done by the kiln.

So it, like, responds to the form, and it deposits ash in the way that it's, like, flowing through the kiln.

It'll deposit ash on the form based on what the form is and based on where it's placed in the kiln.

When you think about the way that the rocks in the gorge were built up, it's layers of sediment, that's layers and layers and layers of sediment that were built up there.

And then the glacier came through and tore parts of it away, and then the creek is constantly flowing, and the rocks affect the direction of the creek, and then the creek is also creating more striations on it too.

So it just feels like that whole process of building up and taking away that positive and negative is happening both there and here, and that's just fascinating.

- Anthony Vertucci is one of the creators of a new documentary called Benedict Arnold: Hero Betrayed.

The documentary takes a fresh look at why this infamous figure of the American Revolution changed sides.

And I sat down with Anthony to explore how US history's most misunderstood figure is so relevant to us today.

Let's take a sneak peek at Hero Betrayed.

- Gentlemen, your attention.

Captain, bring it around.

- And at this point, he does what is perhaps one of the most amazing and courageous things in this entire three-day running battle.

(cannon fires) (upbeat music) He holds the congress back and engages with the larger British ships that are coming after his fleet.

For two and a half hours, he fights with dodging, and weaving, and firing, and running in this crazy, ongoing battle.

- Anthony, welcome to A House for Arts, it's such a pleasure to have you.

- Thank you so much for having me, I'm honored to be here.

- Well, with Chris Stearns and Tom Mercer, you co-created this film, Benedict Arnold: Hero Betrayed, and we just saw a clip of that.

It looks fantastic.

- Thanks.

Thank you.

- But very briefly, tell us what this story is about.

- Well, it's about one of the most interesting, fascinating, and misunderstood characters in all of American history, right?

Benedict Arnold.

The great traitor, or as we call him, really, the Darth Vader of American history.

(Lara chuckles) Perceived to be so bad, yet so good at being a field general during the American Revolution.

So I think people are deeply conflicted about him.

- He has a reputation of being a skilled general, but then of maybe having somewhat dubious morals, or dubious alliances, or something.

- As a field commander during the American Revolution, he was one of the best that the country ever produced.

And then, for various reasons that you learn when you watch the film, clearly he returned his allegiance back to Britain.

But the question we asked, why would one of the most fervent patriots of the American Revolution, somebody who gave blood and treasure, died nearly twice defending the cause, turn his back on it?

- Right, right.

- Right?

That's a really profound question.

Why someone who had sacrificed that much suddenly determined, "I can't be a part of this anymore."

- Well, then that kind of makes me think of these bigger-picture questions, Anthony.

Why the Revolutionary War, why this particular man, and why make a story about those things right now?

- You know, it's funny, the word had come up about Arnold as potentially an anti-hero, and I think that that's a really apt description.

I mean, certainly his origin story would match anything you read in a Marvel comic, right?

This is a man who was born into privilege, had an amazing family upbringing, came from a wealthy family in New England, but then the family ran into hard times.

Three children died, the father became an alcoholic because of it.

They lost their sense of place in the church, they lost their income, and he was basically sold into the apothecary trade.

So what once started as privilege-- - Wow, so kind of like fallen glory, or fallen from grace.

- He had a trajectory of a gentleman, he was set to go to Yale.

Now, suddenly, he's in a trade.

But what did he do with that opportunity?

He basically turned himself from a bad situation into kind of like the American ideal.

He built his own merchant and shipping trade business, became one of the wealthiest men in all of New England, and had this successful trade route running to the Caribbean.

So in many ways, he kind of viewed America as this egalitarian place, this place where-- - Right, because of his own personal life story, that he was able to do something from a very difficult situation, the sort of pull yourself up by your bootstraps idea.

- Self-made, right?

- A self-made man.

- We often hear that term, made, in the same term as Americans, right?

It's great to be self-made, he really was.

So he changed the trajectory of his life and then decided to take everything that he had made and put it into the American Revolution.

I think he believed in the high ideals of the Revolution when it started.

- Right.

So why is the story of Benedict Arnold so important for us right now?

- Well, because I don't think much has really changed.

- [Lara] In what way?

- I think during the American Revolution, you still had this push and pull between, this what I call uneasy tension between the political apparatus and the military apparatus and then the basic civilian population of the country.

I think what people forget is that America wasn't a country at the American Revolution.

We were a colony, right?

We were part of the British Empire, we were essentially British subjects.

- We didn't have a Bill of Rights, we didn't have a Constitution, - We didn't have a Bill of Rights, - we didn't have a, yeah.

- we didn't have a Constitution, a president, right?

We were an ideal.

And again, I think Arnold really believed in those ideals and really wanted to be a part of it.

However, his experiences during the American Revolution started to match some of the things that we see today, that we still-- - Such as?

Because now we're a country, right?

- Right.

- What are some things that we're still seeing where history's repeating itself?

- Well, again, I think you're still seeing this kind of political infighting, rampant self-interest, people who don't take responsibility for the actions that they have, particularly when it comes to Congress.

I mean, Congress is at its lowest ebb in quite a long time, so there's a lack of trust in the political leadership of the country.

All of that existed back then.

- Now, clearly you worked with a legion of historians - True.

- who specialized in the Revolutionary War, 18th-century culture, tribal and military histories, what did working with historians with so many incredible topical sets of expertise teach you about making a documentary?

- Well, I think it really started when we partnered with James Kirby Martin, because he really wrote the definitive biography of Arnold.

And even the origin story of that book is interesting, because the project began where he was going to corroborate all the nefarious things about Arnold.

Turns out the project, once he started doing all of the primary research, went 180.

- Right.

So he started off with this question about how is Arnold a terrible person.

- That's right.

(Lara chuckles) - And then the more he found out... - And suddenly found that everything you ever learned or knew about the guy was absolutely false.

So the story became a completely different story, and in many ways, highlighted all of his major contributions to the war effort.

But it really started there, so having a great partner who thought like us.

And then, once everybody started to understand that we were gonna tackle that 800-pound gorilla of history, right?

Like, one historian said to us when we finally started doing this, Tom Fleming, he said, "Wow, finally somebody has the temerity to take on "this great untold story of American history," and it turns out that's what we found.

We found that one story that nobody wanted to tackle, because it's an uncomfortable story to tell.

- Right.

Well, and it reminds me, and I think it reminds many of the viewers, is that whoever is the one telling history is gonna really impact how we reflect on major historical figures or even who we are as a people, right?

Because it has very much relevance for us today.

- That's correct.

Right.

- In recreating this 18th-century world, I can imagine what it was like creating the stage sets and the sound stages for this.

(Anthony chuckles) So what are some particular memories or challenges that you had in recreating this universe?

- Well, sometimes I think we all wondered, like, oh, my God, what exactly were we chewing on here?

Did we bite off more than we could chew?

But we were fortunate in that we had a great relationship with the reenacting community.

And once people really understood what we were trying to do and how authentic we were trying to make the story, just people came out of the woodwork to help us, naval historians, and the reenacting community, and all these historians who contributed their time.

So we had access to resources that maybe other filmmakers might not have had access to.

- Such as, I mean, did you use historic buildings in the film?

- We did, we shot-- - Did you have to recreate structures?

- Yeah, we basically shot at every historic, all of the the real historic locations that were part of the real story, we actually shot at.

But we shot in London where Arnold is buried, in the crypt of the Battersea Church.

We shot at Fraunces Tavern, where Washington said goodbye to his troops at the end of the war.

- [Lara] Incredible.

- We went all the way to the city of Quebec and shot in Quebec.

We recreated the Battle of Quebec, the snowstorms, we had snow machines blowing.

We built halves of ships and put cannons on them on lakes in Upstate New York.

- That is incredible.

- So we went to extraordinary lengths to try to bring authenticity to the project, and I think we were able to pull it off.

- Speaking of authenticity and of truth, I know that documentaries have become more and more popular with American audiences, especially with streaming services, and what I'm curious to know about, Anthony, is where do you see historical documentaries and just documentary in general going within the next five to 10 years from now?

What role are they gonna play for us in the future?

- Well, I think our project is what we call a hybrid, right?

It's, well-- - [Lara] A hybrid of fiction and nonfiction?

- We kind of call it a Ken Burns documentary on steroids, right?

Because it's more than just panning and scanning on photos.

It would've been pretty boring if we were just scanning on paintings from the 18th century, right?

But we tried to use visual effects and more modern media to bring that particular time period to life.

I mean, one of the mandates of actually making the film is that we wanted it to appeal to a modern audience, but also a younger audience.

So, the production value, the visual effects, things that a modern audience are used to, we wanted to bring into this story to make it more relevant and resonant for them.

- Right, for different generations of people.

- Absolutely.

So just imagine if you're in school, how boring your history class might have been, (Lara chuckles) just imagine having our film as a visual tool to help tell that story to young people.

Probably a different outcome on how they view it.

- Right, with live action, and live actors, and sound, and visuals, and-- - Action-adventure.

- Yeah.

- I mean, the Arnold stories, it's an epic action-adventure movie, massive ship battles, and moving armies fighting in the field.

I mean, it's really epic in scope.

So we felt that shooting this hybrid kind of production would just bring that more to life.

- Right.

Well, it sounds super exciting, I can't wait to check it out.

(Anthony chuckles) Anthony, thank you so much for being on A House for Arts, it was such a pleasure to have you.

- Oh, thank you so much, I'm so glad to have been here, and again, thank you for the interest in this story.

- Please welcome Justin Friello.

- This song is called "Jack and Jill".

It's based on a true story of an experience that I had about five years ago at a concert.

And I was playing and I saw this girl in the audience, and we made eye contact, and we had a little moment on stage, which is always nice as a performer.

And then my mind just kinda ran with it.

("Jack and Jill" by Justin Friello) ♪ Always want what I can't have ♪ ♪ But I continue to climb that hill ♪ ♪ And I promise that I'll find my way back ♪ ♪ If you'll be my Jill ♪ ♪ It's me you haunt with your smile, your laugh ♪ ♪ Whatever is in you, I'll find it, I will ♪ ♪ And I promise that I'll be your Jack ♪ ♪ If you'll be my Jill ♪ ♪ You wore my hat, and with your hand on my back ♪ ♪ You said, "I'm going home" ♪ ♪ So I'll pretend that I'll see you again ♪ ♪ Your picture, my company when I am alone ♪ ♪ My setting sun, what have you done ♪ ♪ Your glance, it gave me a thrill ♪ ♪ If you only knew I'm mad over you ♪ ♪ You might be my Jill ♪ ♪ You said goodnight with your smile bright ♪ ♪ And gave me only your name ♪ ♪ It's dumb, I know, to think of you so ♪ ♪ But I hold on to the fantasy that you feel the same ♪ ♪ Memory will be the death of me ♪ ♪ But I can't seem to get my fill ♪ ♪ A panic attack, I wanna be your Jack ♪ ♪ Would you be my Jill ♪ This song is called "Mr. Frog".

And I know I've said in performances past that I don't wanna say why that song is called that, but this is about my friend who's waiting at home for me.

("Mr. Frog" by Justin Friello) ♪ You wanna sleep all day ♪ ♪ You wanna sleep all night ♪ ♪ You can't see another way ♪ ♪ But that doesn't make it right ♪ ♪ It doesn't work like that ♪ ♪ Ignoring problems like you do ♪ ♪ It doesn't work like that ♪ ♪ Even though I still love you ♪ ♪ To me it's not some big surprise ♪ ♪ That's why I picked you off the shelf ♪ ♪ I knew the sadness in your eyes ♪ ♪ It was the same that's in myself ♪ ♪ But it doesn't work like that ♪ ♪ Mistaking love for tears in our eyes, hurt in our hearts ♪ ♪ We are both the same ♪ ♪ It doesn't work like that ♪ ♪ When your problems are mine and mine are yours ♪ ♪ Going around, but being round is what caught my eye ♪ ♪ So I keep you mine ♪ ♪ If you wanna sleep all day ♪ ♪ Then I wanna climb in your bed ♪ ♪ If this is the only way ♪ ♪ I'll break up with the world instead ♪ ♪ But it doesn't work like that ♪ ♪ Hoping it'll all change ♪ ♪ If I just love you enough ♪ ♪ Look at us, still the same ♪ ♪ It doesn't work like that ♪ ♪ Mistaking you for my life, life for my friends ♪ ♪ Friends for my work, working for what ♪ ♪ What is my life ♪ ♪ Round and around and around and around ♪ ♪ And around and around and around and around ♪ ♪ It doesn't work like that ♪ ♪ It doesn't work like that ♪ ♪ It doesn't work like that ♪ ♪ It doesn't work like that ♪ ♪ It doesn't work like that ♪ ♪ It doesn't work like that ♪ ♪ It doesn't work like that ♪ ♪ It doesn't work like that ♪ ♪ It doesn't work like that ♪ (upbeat music) - Thanks for joining us.

For more arts, visit wmht.org/aha, and be sure to connect with us on social.

I'm Lara Ayad, thanks for watching.

- [Announcer] Funding for AHA has been provided by your contribution and by contributions to the WMHT venture fund.

Contributors include The Leo Cox Beach Philanthropic Foundation, Chet and Karen Opalka, Robert and Doris Fischer Malesardi, The Alexander & Marjorie Hover Foundation, and The Robison Family Foundation.

- At M & T Bank, we understand that the vitality of our communities is crucial to our continued success.

That's why we take an active role in our community.

M & T Bank is pleased to support WMHT programming that highlights the arts, and we invite you to do the same.