Local filmmakers to premiere Eldersburg documentary

Three Liberty High School graduates discovered this as they interviewed 50 residents of all ages for a documentary they taped this summer about their hometown.

Scott Lowe, a 2005 graduate, who is now a video major at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, and Adam Dyjak and Rush Lester, both 2006 graduates, shot 35 hours of footage using a digital camera and now are busy editing the movie to 20 minutes in time for Wednesday’s premiere.

“Not much happens” in Eldersburg, with its lack of shopping mall and downtown, 20-year-old Lowe said from his basement studio Sunday.

Many of the residents they interviewed, especially those raising families, described the unincorporated town of 28,000 as a quiet and safe place — and they preferred it that way.

“But for [high-schoolers and young adults,] this is a disillusioned place where they turn to drugs and alcohol,” said Dyjak, who turns 18 this month.

“One guy told us he wakes up, goes to work, drinks and goes to bed.”

Some residents said they resented how they moved to Eldersburg for its rural charms, only to have it transformed into a suburban, bedroom community in rapid growth spurts that outpace the rest of the county.

State Del. Susan Krebs, R-District 9B, also addresses the challenges of managing South

Carroll’s development in the documentary.

The movie — sponsored by Eldersburg.net, an online newsletter — begins with images of Eldersburg’s map and nighttime traffic as Nine Inch Nails’ “A Warm Place”

plays.

“Eldersburg is not the most interesting place, so a lot of people here have to make their own entertainment,” said Lester, 18.

And, for at least for three young moviemakers, they’ve done just that.

IF YOU GO

» What: Premiere of “Eldersburg: Boondock Suburbia”

» When: 6 p.m. Wednesday

» Where: Moonlight Cafe, 1437 Liberty Road, Eldersburg