Snake Hill, a feature-length documentary by New Jersey-based filmmakers, Sandra Longo, Debra Higgins, and Anna-Mária Vág, will have its world premiere at the prestigious Palm Beach International Film Festival, during the week of April 16-26, 2007, in Boca Raton, Florida.
The 78-minute film, tells the story of Snake Hill, a once sprawling institution that served as the last stop for thousands of terminally ill patients, indigents, “lunatics,” and prisoners from 1870 to 1962. Abandoned and forsaken, thousands of unmarked graves lay in deplorable conditions for decades, as millions of unsuspecting motorists passed by them each day on the New Jersey Turnpike.
One man’s 22-year-search for his grandfather’s remains took a dramatic turn in 2002 when a Turnpike excavation project unearthed human remains at Snake Hill. As the only living lineal descendents on record, Patrick Andriani and his father, Gennaro, served as the impetus for a court ordered disinterment/re-interment project that became the largest of its kind in U.S. history, and inspired a handful of additional descendants to come forward.
Snake Hill Producer Debra Higgins, an Allenhurst-native, first became aware of Snake Hill as a child, while traveling up the NJ Turnpike to her father’s office in New York City. Higgins says, “I became mesmerized by the remnants of the large crumbling buildings on the Snake Hill property in Secaucus, NJ. And my father captivated me with imaginative, and sometimes scary, tales about Snake Hill’s infamous lunatic asylum and prison.”
As an adult, Higgins’ remained intrigued by Snake Hill, and in March 2004, she convinced fellow-filmmakers, Sandra Longo and Anna-Mária Vág, that the Snake Hill story needed to be told. Initially, the filmmakers planned to shoot a historical look at Snake Hill’s various institutions and legacy. However, as filming continued, it became clear that there was a lot more to this story. The filmmakers were no longer just making a film about deserted buildings – they were helping to unbury the dead.
Snake Hill’s Director/Executive Producer, Sandra Longo, of Holmdel, says, “Producing Snake Hill was a remarkably rewarding-experience that often seemed propelled by the souls at Snake Hill themselves, as if they chose us to go on this adventure, so that we could be their voices, and let the world know what had become of them.”
Unknown to the filmmakers when they began shooting, amazing current-day events were simultaneously unfolding. A NJ Turnpike excavation had uncovered human remains at Snake Hill, ultimately resulting in the largest disinterment/re-interment in U.S. History. These events and others would shape the direction of the film in a way the filmmakers could not have imagined.
Producer Anna-Mária Vág, a resident of Laurence Harbor, says, “Thousands of bodies were buried at Snake Hill and then made to disappear. You can't bury the past and pretend it didn't happen. The people that ended up at Snake Hill suffered enough in life and deserve some dignity in death; we hope this film finally gives them that.”
In early 2004, Debra Higgins, Sandra Longo and Anna-Mária Vág joined together to create Like-Minded Entertainment (LME) with the intent to produce a wide range of inspirational and entertaining projects together, starting with Snake Hill. LME serves as the parent company for the Crescent City Films, Legacy Mountain Films, Moxie River Films, and Sterling Tusk Films.
Besides the Palm Beach screening, Snake Hill is scheduled to screen closer to home, as part of New Jersey’s Red Bank Freedom Film Series, on Wednesday, June 13, 2007, at the Clearview Cinemas, 36 White Street, Red Bank, New Jersey. There is a $10 charge for non-members, and an $8 charge for Freedom Film members.
For more information on the Palm Beach International Film Festival, go to www.pbifilmfest.org. Go to www.rbiff.org to find out more about Red Bank’s Freedom Film Series and annual film festival.
My late wife was committed to the Snake Hill alms house when she was four months old. I would like to get a copy of your film.
Posted by: LeRoy Martin | January 09, 2008 at 10:36 AM