Eric Stange, a Bostonian who specializes in historical documentary, and producer Damian Panetta from New York City. Mountain Lake staffer Karin O'Connell was associate producer and project researcher. Powers served as executive producer.

"Essentially, I got the project off the ground, pitched it and hired everyone to work. I acted as a supervisor."

EVERY EXPERT
Powers tapped every resource at the station.

"Every person was involved in some way — going on shoots, helping to organize things back here. No one was left out of the work. That's the nature of a big national project like this. It touched all of us."

The low budget of less than $300,000 was possible due to the more than 2,000 living history re-enactors who participated in the replay of the Battle of Fort Ticonderoga during the summer of 2008.

"We had many, many cameras there. We were the only people allowed to get really close. They allowed us to embed our cameramen in the action. Our cameramen wore period costumes. We could not have made this film (otherwise)."

The documentary's narrative arc includes the story of Rogers' Rangers, Abenaki and Iroquois nations, the Fort William Henry "massacre," expulsion of Acadians and the fall of Quebec and Montreal.

"We had virtually every North American expert on the French and Indian War participating in one way or another, whether we used them as interviews, research or background," Powers said. "We got an outpouring of support from the academic community. We wanted to make sure the facts and historical accuracy was right on. That's critical for any PBS documentary."

E-mail Robin Caudell at: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com