WAYNE: THE MOVIE
A
Documentary filmmaker Paul Bastante is telling the town’s rich story through film
WRITTEN BY PHILIP DEVENCENTIS PHOTOGRAPHY BY MITSU YASUKAWA
s part of his latest
project, documen-
tary filmmaker Paul
Bastante has found
that Wayne’s history
is rich, but compli-
cated. It began with the revolutionary
exploits of its namesake, statesman
“Mad Anthony” Wayne, in the late
18th century, and it continues with
the settlement along the shores of
Packanack Lake, Pines Lake and
other exclusive neighborhoods.
Its history has been sweet, at times.
Did you know that the Nabisco food
scientist who concocted the crème
filling for Oreo cookies lived in the
township? Samuel Porcello died in
May 2012.
But “If you Google Wayne, right
now, you get nothing,” says Bastante.
“You get ‘flood zone’ — you get
things about corruption, and you
just get all of these negative stories.
Wayne isn’t like that. Wayne’s a lot
better than that. In making this film,
I want to raise its profile.”
His film, titled Hills & Valleys:
A Journey through Wayne, N.J., will
premiere at a sold-out red-carpet gala
at the Wayne YMCA Theatre on Nov.
2 at 6:30 p.m.; it will also be screened
on Nov. 3 and at local high schools,
and released on DVD and YouTube
in mid-November, he says.
The Y plays a prominent role in
the film, which is expected to run one
hour and 25 minutes. Bastante says
the film is broken up into different
features, one of which focuses on the
22
FALL 2019 WAYNE MAGAZINE
TALE OF A TOWNSHIP Paul Bastante’s other documentaries include Bloomingdale: An American
Small Town and Before a Nation: The Story of Pequannock.
rise of local organizations, such as the
Y and Wayne Police Athletic League.
Some of the film will be dedi-
cated to local lake communities,
while another part will be a narrated
bird’s-eye tour of the township’s
25.2-square-mile landscape, shot
using a camera drone. Laurelwood
Arboretum, a 30-acre nature preserve
off Colfax Road, will be highlighted
separately. The arboretum’s past as
a commercial nursery, and its trans-
formation more than 50 years ago
as a botanical garden, is a story that
has been lost over time; that is why
Bastante says it is important to tell it
in his film.
“A lot of people, to this day,
don’t know that Laurelwood exists,”
says Diane Bromberg-Stern, the
arboretum’s volunteer membership
director. “This film that Paul is
making, I think, is going to bring
attention to Laurelwood.”
Mayor Christopher Vergano hopes
the documentary will bring positive
attention to the township. “It serves
a purpose for the community,” the
mayor says. “It might be a big town,
but it really has a small-town feeling.
I think that’s what he’s going to be
showing.”