By Klea Gjergji ’23
Briscoe Middle School opened in 1923 and held long-lasting memories until its closing in 2018. Beverly High School seniors are working on a Briscoe documentary for their REACH Project to pay tribute to Brsicoe’s legacy and its impact on the community.
I interviewed Stewart Moran (‘23), the director of the documentary:
Q: What is your goal with the Briscoe documentary?
A: I’d say our goal, in simplest terms, is to just provide an entertaining and informative documentary to the public about Briscoe. But in a bit more of a broader sense, I’d say we’re trying to give Briscoe one last goodbye. A sort of tribute to its legacy as a school, as it transitions into assisted living residences. We’re hoping that people will be able to remember Briscoe more clearly with this project.
Q: What inspired you?
A: We had the idea for this project around the start of January. It started when myself, Will Sousa, our assistant director, and Matt Lee, our historian, were looking through old yearbooks in the archive section of the BHS library. Now some of the yearbooks date back to when the high school was still located in the Briscoe building, and it was really there that we formulated the idea to do something for Briscoe. We all attended Briscoe, and with its hundredth anniversary coinciding with this year, it really just felt right for us to do something that would commemorate it.
Q: What will be featured in this documentary?
A: So, for this project, we decided early on that we didn’t want to use a narrator for the film. We thought it would come across as a bit less personal to an audience. Our documentary will instead feature the voices of those who attended Briscoe, either as a student or a faculty member. Over the past two months, we’ve interviewed over 30 people, and they’ll provide the story of what it was like to attend the building, while also covering some of the key moments in its history. We’ve additionally been collecting footage and photos, both from the building as it currently stands, as well as from Briscoe’s history. We’re relying heavily on the photos and videos that the community has captured over the years, and would greatly appreciate anyone sharing them with us. In essence, the school is being used as a backdrop for the stories of the people who remember it.
If anyone is interested in being interviewed or contributing to the documentary, please feel free to contact these emails! garciaom920@gmail.com, or briscoemiddle.1923@gmail.com
Image Credit: https://harborlightcp.org/old-school-beverly-high-seniors-making-documentary-about-former-briscoe-school/
