MCCLURE — Andrew Benner, of McClure, along with family and friends, traveled to Pittsburgh on Oct. 11 to see the premiere of a Civil War movie called “Dog Jack.” Benner, along with other local Civil War re-enactors, participated in the film as both Union and Confederate soldiers in movie segments filmed in July 2005.
The premiere was held at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall, where a portrait of Jack now hangs. At the end of the war, the men of the 102nd Pennsylvania Regiment commissioned the portrait. It is the only known memorial to Dog Jack.
While there, Benner’s family had the opportunity to meet with Florence Biros, author of the book “Dog Jack.” Biros wrote the book in the late 1980s.
History comes alive History became a passion to some local graduates of West Snyder High School, thanks to teacher Michael Sanders, who has published several books about life during The Civil War era. Called “Colonel” by his students, Sanders not only taught history, but helped students live it through his Civil War Club. Some of his graduates, including Benner, took up the hobby of being Civil War re-enactors.
The director of “Dog Jack,” Edward McDougal, and his team, searched for re-enactors who owned authentic clothing of the period in each of the four states where the movie was filmed (Pennsylvania, Idaho, Wisconsin and Michigan).
These re-enactors’ only pay was food provided by the production crew, a free DVD and their names in the credits at the end of the movie.
The fun part was watching the director and main actors work together on the smallest details, such as having the right setting, mood and action, all filmed in high definition.
Running up and down the same hill five times, recalled Benner, was not the fun part. The director needed to reshoot the same scene to eliminate errors. Afterward, everybody changed from Confederate to Yankee outfits for the next phase of filming. Chuckling, Benner said he ended up chasing himself down the same hill due limited availability of re-enactors during that particular weekend.
At times, production had to stop, because the re-enactors, wearing two layers of wool clothing, needed water and some relief from the sun and heat.
“It has been four long years since our part in the filming,” Benner said. Some of that was due to an exhaustion of funds during editing. New sponsors eventually provided the needed money to complete the project.
A second premiere was held Oct. 24 in Chicago, and efforts are now under way to find distributors. After its debut in movie theaters, “Dog Jack” will be released on Blue Ray DVD.
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Local re-enactors featured in film
Civil War movie tells story of ‘Dog Jack’
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