Filmmaker Carolyn McGrath presents “Contested Territory,” a film exploring the tensions in West Windsor when developers first proposed the Estates at Princeton Junction with more than 1,000 homes on one of the town’s few remaining tracts of farmland. “The politics of race, class, housing, and the environment collide in a landmark case before the New Jersey State Supreme Court,” McGrath wrote on her webpage. McGrath, the filmmaker and a resident of Windsor Haven, will be speaking after the video screening.
“I feel connected to West Windsor as my grandparents were farmers and other relatives still are,” she told the News in 2003. “I’ve let that weave into the story in hopes that it gets people thinking and talking. Not everyone will be thrilled with the film — it brings up controversial issues.”
Raised in Bergen County, McGrath has lived in West Windsor for close to seven years. A graduate of Rutgers with degrees in psychology, visual arts, and English, she earned her master’s degree in studio art from Maine College of Art through a combination long distance and summer program.
“While in graduate school majoring in performance art, I was writing and taking photos to document the history of the land across the street (Bear Brook) that was going to be developed,” said McGrath (The News, February 21, 2003. “While attending planning board meetings, I still was not thinking of it as a documentary — just an art project. Then I bought a video camera, taught myself how to use it and how to edit.”
“As I started videotaping and interviewing people, I learned about the development and how it fell into the larger West Windsor history,” she said. “The town was quickly changing from a farming community to a suburb and affecting transportation and environment.”
“Contested Territory” features interviews with Glenn and Mercy Bruestle, Bear Brook Road residents; Beulah Faccini, former Meadow Road resident; Charlie Appelget, West Windsor farmer; Sam Surtees, director of community development in West Windsor; Henry MacAdam, author of “West Windsor Then and Now;” Chris Jepson, West Windsor environmental consultant; George Hawkins, director of NJ Future and former Stony Brook Millstone Watershed director; Carole Carson, former West Windsor mayor; Tony Nelessen, smart growth advocate/planner and professor of urban planning at Rutgers; and Jim Kunstler, author of “Geography of Nowhere.”
Also Gerald Muller, West Windsor planning board attorney; Shirley Bishop, former COAH director and current housing and planning consultant; Carl Bisgaier and Peter O’Connor, affordable housing lawyers in the original Mt. Laurel case; Joe O’Shea, former Windsor Haven Condo Association president; and Susan Parris, West Windsor native; and her husband, David Parris, curator of natural history at New Jersey State Museum.
McGrath began to understand affordable housing and how Mt. Laurel happened. She also realized that there were fewer options for lower income folks and that not everyone wanted the big expensive houses that were being built.
“Contested Territory” received an award for “Best Documentary” when it was first shown at the Super 8mm Film and Digital Video Festival in 2003. In 2004 McGrath screened the film at the New Jersey Film Festival. She has also presented the film at Rutgers, Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts, Sierra Clubs of New Jersey, Blomfield College, College of New Jersey, and Columbia University. The new 2005 version has been updated to include images reflecting the development that has taken place and includes additional interviews.
An art teacher with the Hopewell Valley Regional School District since 1998, McGrath also serves as advisor to photography, ceramics, yoga, and student activism clubs.
“Regarding the development now, I have mixed feelings about it,” says McGrath. “On the one hand, I think the new families who have moved in — and I’ve spoken with many of them — are a nice addition to our community. I think many of them are pleased with their new homes and their neighborhood. At the same time, I think that the (Toll) project could have been more wisely planned, given its size and location. It could have used the smart growth principles that we see at work in a development like the Washington town center. But that’s not the case.”
Contested Territory, Historical Society of West Windsor, West Windsor Senior Center, 609-799-1278. Screening of “Contested Territory,” a 50-minute film produced by West Windsor resident Carolyn McGrath. Free. Monday, September 11, 8 p.m.
