“ARCTIC ALCHEMY, Discoveries of The Red Hand” – an inspiring
documentary about beer to premiere at the 2015 SouthSide Film Festival
BETHLEHEM, PA. — The 12th Annual SouthSide Film Festival has chosen
the Bethlehem co-produced documentary film “Arctic Alchemy,
Discoveries of The Red Hand” as the opening night’s feature film.
After winning several national and international brewing awards for
his recipe, beer historian Christopher Bowen’s long-awaited
documentary makes its official U.S. premiere in his hometown of
Bethlehem, Pa. at 8 p.m., Tuesday June 9, 2015 at the Broughal Middle
School auditorium, 114 W. Morton St.
The beer, Arctic Alchemy, produced by Bowen and Fegley’s Brew Works,
won a gold medal in 2014 at the Great American Beer Festival, Denver,
a gold medal in 2012 at the World Beer Championships in Chicago, IL,
and a bronze medal in 2011 at the Great American Beer Festival in
Denver.
The film about “one man’s search for the Holy Grail of ales” was shot
on location in Pennsylvania, New York and Canada and features a
brewing and motorcycle road trip from Bethlehem to the Canadian
Arctic. The historic beer prompted Bowen to travel 2,000 miles on
motorcycles on a journey to the Hudson Bay and the edge of the Arctic
Circle to recreate Allsopp’s Arctic Ale in 2010. There, in dramatic
fashion, Bowen brewed 100 gallons of Allsopp’s Arctic Ale.
This beer was first commissioned by Queen Victoria to supply an 1852
Arctic expedition led by Sir Edward Belcher, who was supposed to
discover the fate of an earlier expedition to find Sir John Franklin’s
ill-fated ships of the exploration of the Northwest Passage.
Franklin’s expedition in 1845 had gone in search of a sea route
through the Arctic Ocean.
In 1852, four of Belcher’s five ships were trapped in ice and the
expedition returned to England in disgrace. One of the abandoned
ships, the HMS Resolute, broke free of the ice and drifted into the
path of an American whaling vessel, which towed it back to London
Conn., where it was restored in the Brooklyn Navy shipyards in New
York. The ship was eventually returned to the British as a gift and
served the Royal Navy a dozen more years before being decommissioned.
Beams from this ship were turned into several desks: One went to
Buckingham Palace another to the Oval Office.
This film contains much more of Bowen’s fantastic Arctic brewing voyage.
The evening kicks off at 6 p.m. at the festival’s opening night party
at the Portuguese-American Club, 337 Brodhead Ave, Bethlehem,
featuring catered fare and a cash bar. The film screening will follow
at 8 p.m. at Broughal Middle School. Tickets are $10 and include both
the party and the film screening.
About the SouthSide Film Festival: The SouthSide Film Festival is an
annual five-day event featuring international films, guest filmmakers,
juried selections, locally produced films, seminars, and networking
opportunities for filmmakers and fans of independent film. The
SouthSide Film Festival is a program of The SouthSide Film Institute,
a not-for-profit volunteer-run organization promoting the art of the
independent filmmaker. www.ssff.org
For more information, contact:
Christopher Bowen
484-554-6026
mrbowenz@yahoo.com
www.arcticalchemy.com
Pattie Giordani
Public Relations
SouthSide Film Institute
pattieg1@ptd.net
610.882.4300
http://ssff.org
