Art House Extra | Filmmaker Creates an Ode to Lawrence, Kansas

Lawrence filmmaker Marc Havener passed the pandemic creating a love letter to his hometown rendered in film and song.

The result, “Dear Larry: A Letter to Home,” delivers on its promise.

Initially, Havener set out to visually document how the COVID-19 pandemic brought life in a thriving college town to a grinding halt. Then it began to take on more resonance as the community responded to the crisis.

The film displays an eye for beautiful cinematography, and Lawrence provides a lovely canvas. But the key is the relationship that the images have with a song, “Forever Ago” by Woodlock, which opens with the couplet: “Don’t go changing/You mean everything to me.”

It’s a weeper. In a good way.

“The song plays such a central role,” Havener said. “Without the song, it’s just sort of a montage of images.”

Watch the attached video to get a deeper understanding. And luxuriate in the message Havener delivers to his fellow citizens in Lawrence — and by extension every community now emerging from a godawful year.

“Be strong. Stay kind. Remember what we’re fighting for.”

Amen.