Somerville Filmmaker Points Lens at “Housewife" Who Saved River

For filmmakers Dorie Clark of Somerville and Susan Edwards of Pepperell, a film is more than a film; it can also be a call to action. So while they are proud that their documentary Marion Stoddart: The Work of 1000 is garnering national and international accolades, mostly they want people to learn its story: how one “ordinary” housewife led an extraordinary campaign to cleanup one of the nation’s ten most polluted rivers.

The film tells how Stoddart launched a massive grassroots effort that became an “internationally recognized ecological success story.” Basically, she’s responsible for cleaning up the dying Nashua River, a waterway so polluted when Stoddart moved nearby it in the 1960s that it not only ranked among the ten most polluted rivers in the nation its foul odors were drifting into Stoddart’s home. 

Clark, an award-winning former journalist now working with nonprofits and also serving as an adjunct professor at Emerson College and Suffolk University, and Edwards, who runs Extra Mile Design, wanted to shine the light on Stoddart’s good example.

"We are thrilled and honored that Marion's story has been able to reach so many people," said Edwards in a statement. "The Work of 1000 is a compelling look at the universal struggle to find meaning in our lives and truly shows the impact that one person can have on the world. The larger picture unfolds to reveal a woman who overcame gender roles of the 1960s to become a leader of potent political force thus changing the status quo.”

The film community is responding positively. After screening at the Green Screen Environmental Film Festival in Venice, CA, the documentary was awarded Best Call to Action Film. It earned ovations from the audience at the Women's Film Festival in Brattleboro, VT, and at the Los Angeles International Women's Film Festival. In May, it will screen at the Reel Earth Environmental Film Festival in Palmerston North, New Zealand.

“The Work of 1000 is garnering praise for more than its message of environmental activism. It is also being hailed for its motivational message that each person has it within their power to contribute to the local and global community,” report Clark and Edwards.

"The film is the centerpiece of a larger civic engagement project," Edwards continued. "People are getting creative with how they use The Work of 1000 as a lesson in leadership teaching the impact that each individual can have on a cause.”

To help audiences move from being simply inspired to taking action, the filmmakers offer learning materials via their website and at screenings. Discussion packets for community and grade 8-12 screenings are offered and the filmmakers and Stoddart attend screenings to talk about environmental organizing. All three also collaborated on the leadership handbook Commit! How to Turn Your Vision of Change into a Reality by Marion Stoddart with Work of 1000, which can be downloaded for free as a pdf or purchased.

The film screens locally next on Wed. March 30, 6-7:30 p.m. at Grace Episcopal Church 160 High St.,
Medford. Stoddart will attend and lead the discussion. Free admission. Dinner at 6 p.m., screening at 6:45 p.m. Info here.

Visit the project's website at http://www.workof1000.org/screenings to find local screenings, to learn how to host one, or to read more.