Film premiere to aid flood recovery

MARION - The premiere of a documentary about love and valor will aid two Cedar Rapids groups rebuilding from the floods of 2008: Ushers Ferry Historic Village and the HD Youth Center.

“Love & Valor - The Intimate Civil War Letters” will be shown at 7:15 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 8, at Collins Road Theatres, 1462 Twixt Town Rd. Tickets are $8 for adults and $4.50 for children, available in advance by calling Ushers Ferry, (319) 286-5763.

Narrated by acclaimed actor Brian Dennehy, the story is based on the actual letters between Iowa Capt. Jacob Ritner and his wife, Emeline, during the Civil War. Many of the scenes were filmed in 2004 at Ushers Ferry in southwest Cedar Rapids, with Ann Cejka, the historic site's program coordinator/curator, portraying Emeline.

Ritner, a Union Captain from Mount Pleasant, was a teacher, farmer and abolitionist before the war. The movie tells of patriotism, loneliness, slavery, anguish at the death of loved ones and their devotion to each other.

The HD Youth Center, which offers a positive environment for at-risk children, helped provide many of the extras used in the filming, including founder Henry Davison. 

Other Iowa locations on screen include the Riverboat Twilight in LeClaire and cemeteries around Mount Pleasant, showing graves of Iowa soldiers featured in the story. Iowa Civil War re-enactors also participated.

The film was written, produced and directed by Charles F. Latimer of Sigourney Press Films in Chicago. He also wrote the book on which the film was based, “Love and Valor: Intimate Civil War Letters Between Captain Jacob and Emeline Ritner.”