Film Screening and Q&A: The Photo Returner (2025) by Garret Harkawik

Wednesday, August 27th, 2025, 6pm
@ VCP, 10 Green Street, Brattleboro, VT

VCP member and filmmaker Garret Harkawik will join us on Wednesday, August 27th for a screening of his short documentary film (15 min) The Photo Returner. After the screening he will stick around for a Q&A and to provide a glimpse into the filmmaking process! He will be joined by the film’s star, Erin Bohannon, who will also be answering questions and bringing photos from her collection to show off. 

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About the Film

When you walk into a thrift store, you are bound to come across stray photographs of people from decades past – portraits, vacation photos, and domestic life. To most, these lost photos are a brief window into the past. To Erin Bohannon, they are an unbearable tragedy.

By night Erin works in a plastic factory but by day she is an amateur genealogist, working to reunite the lost photos in her (ever growing) collection with the descendants of who they depict. It’s a process that can sometimes take years of research but once Erin has a photo in her possession she never discards it – even when it means making sacrifices in her personal life.

Directed, shot and edited by Garret Harkawik. Garret is a documentary filmmaker and composer living in southern Vermont.​ Since 2011 he has completed nearly a dozen short documentaries and accompanying scores. His work has been screened at festivals such as DOC NYC, Rooftop Films and featured in The Atlantic, Short of the Week and twice as a Vimeo Staff Pick.

Featuring Erin Bohannon