Movie On 5th N.Y. Will Recall Pohanka’s Legacy

By Deborah Fitts

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — One of the legacies of the late historian, preservationist and reenactor Brian Pohanka has been playing out on the rolling fields of Maryland and in the streets of Old Town Alexandria: filming for a full-length feature movie on his beloved 5th New York Zouaves.

Pohanka’s widow, Cricket Bauer Pohanka, is executive producer of “Red Legged Devils.” The movie traces the actual experiences of the regiment through the eyes of a fictionalized individual, a 30-year-old law clerk from Brooklyn who enlists in businessman Abram Duryee’s colorful new regiment at the outset of the war.

Bauer-Pohanka hopes to sell the movie to a cable channel early next year. It could air around the time that her husband’s book on the 5th N.Y.— expected to be the definitive work on the regiment — is published by Schroeder Publications.

“It would be really great to have the book and movie come out at the same time,” she explained. “With the movie you’re telling a story that you’re not going to get from the regimental history. One will appeal more to one person than another.”

Bauer-Pohanka said she set out to make a movie that was thoroughly professional, rather than one that relies on reenactors. She is aiming to reach an audience not of history buffs or reenactors, “but the public who are not necessarily interested in the Civil War.”

“These are men who fought for something they believed in and yet their story is barely remembered. In the 19th century everybody knew what a Zouave was, but nobody knows now. If I could bring what a Zouave is back to the average person, right there I’d feel I’ve made a great mark.”

Brian Pohanka, a nationally known figure who died in May 2005, for many years commanded the widely admired modern-day 5th N.Y. He had long recognized the ability of movies to bring history to mass audiences, and had served as a consultant on several major Civil War films. He and professional filmmaker Charlie Spickler discussed the idea of doing something on Duryee’s Zouaves, a longstanding primary focus of Pohanka’s research.

Bauer-Pohanka said the two men first discussed a documentary, then a docu-drama, and finally decided on a full-length feature film. Pohanka wrote 20 pages of dialogue before he fell ill to the cancer that eventually ended his life.

Bauer-Pohanka and Spickler formed a production company, C Squared Pictures, and hired a cast of 20 professional actors as their core group. “They’re all in their 20s and 30s.” she said. “They’re all thin and young-looking. We have so many photos of the [original] 5th, there was no reason we couldn’t do it right.”

After months of script-writing and preparation they began filming Aug 26 at Ballestone Manor in Essex, Md., and then moved to Old Town Alexandria for city scenes. Shooting was scheduled to end Sept. 14.

Lead actor Gavin Peretti portrays a fictional Jamie Stevens, but Bauer-Pohanka said the incidents in the movie are all factual.

“We tried very hard to stick to history,” she said. “My view is that if it’s possible to do it in a historically accurate way, we need to do it. We’re not going to be Hollywood and glaze over things.” She said the movie would provide “controversy, comic relief, no sex, but a little blood and guts.”

She said the movie would not attempt to explain the whys and wherefores of the Civil War, but would address the soldier’s experiences, motivations, and the decisions he made. She said the movie would be “very relevant” to today’s world, where young Americans are going off to war “and coming back after seeing truly horrible things.”

An authority on historic costumes who has worked in theater and with museum collections, Bauer-Pohanka oversaw fabrication of 20 complete Zouave uniforms for the actors, patterned on an original uniform.

She said the filming involved several happy surprises, including a heat wave that broke into fine weather just as filming began, and unexpected harmony and synergy among the crew. “That Brian’s watching out for us, there’s no doubt,” she said. A board member of the Civil War Preservation Trust, she said any profit she may make from the movie will go to the Trust.

She hopes the movie and the book will continue her husband’s legacy, but it will also bear her own imprint.

“I needed a way to make a contribution to this without being Brian,” she explained. “I can’t be Brian. In some way I’m carrying on a bit of his legacy. I have a whole different set of skills than Brian, but our intentions are the same.”