Memory Train

Producer: Rosemary Connors

Memory Train is a visually and verbally poetic exploration of the passing of two locomotive trains; RFK's funeral train in 1968 and Barack Obama's inaugural train, January 17, 2009. Each traveled on the Northeast Corridor which is a block from where Michael O’Reilly grew up, in Sharon Hill, PA, right outside of Philadelphia. Utilizing time-lapse footage, super-8 archival, cell phone video and high-speed photography with the RED camera, Memory Train weaves visually disparate threads to create a garment that covers the things that have changed and the things that have remained the same in that neighborhood, in all trains and in this country.

Rosemary Connors, the producer of Memory Train, worked closely with editor Michael O'Reilly. Connors is the former Executive Director of the Philadelphia Film Society, the producers of the Philadelphia Film Festival and the former Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, and has enjoyed a 20+ year career with educational and cultural nonprofit organizations in the Philadelphia area. She has had film reviews published in the Philadelphia Daily News under the tutelage of the paper’s former critic Joe Baltake, and is the creator of “Third Sunday,” a regionally-based movie discussion group. She is the film lover’s film lover.