By John Johnston
The Cincinnati Enquirer

A slave catcher on horseback appears out of dark shadows. He dismounts and fires a rifle into the woods. But before he can take another shot at a runaway named Alice, he's thwarted by abolitionist John Parker.

Thursday night, a film crew using high-definition video cameras captured that scene at Heritage Village Museum at Sharon Woods. It will be woven into a 15-minute film called Brothers of the Borderlands, which visitors will see when the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center opens next summer.

The film will tell the story of Parker, a former slave who bought his freedom, and the Rev. John Rankin, a white Presbyterian minister. They worked together in the years before the Civil War to help runaways escape.

Both lived in Ripley, an Ohio River town 50 miles east of Cincinnati. The slave-holding state of Kentucky was a river's width away. At night, Parker would ferry runaways to the Ohio side, where Rankin and his family helped put them on a path to freedom.

"The story shows the interracial cooperation, first and foremost, and the courage of each man," said Rita Organ, the Freedom Center's director of exhibits. "You see the risks they were taking."

ZoMotion Productions, headed by Cincinnati filmmaker Alphonzo J. Wesson III, is producing the film. Wesson hired Julie Dash, a highly respected independent filmmaker from Los Angeles, to direct it. Two years ago she directed TV's The Rosa Parks Story, which earned actress Angela Bassett an Emmy nomination.

Because slaves escaped under cover of darkness, most of the film is being shot at night.

"The nights aren't long enough. That's the biggest challenge," Dash said Thursday before filming began.

Monday through Wednesday, the production team shot scenes in Ripley, including the Rankin house. It sits high on a hill overlooking the Ohio River and the town below.

"Just knowing we put a lamp in the same window he did - that's pretty impressive," Dash said. The light, visible from the Kentucky shore, signaled that it was safe for escaping slaves to make their way to the house.

The film crew then moved to Heritage Village in Sharonville, operated by Historic Southwest Ohio Inc. Scenes were to be shot in several of the village's 16 historic buildings.

Next week, several days of filming are planned at Ohio Village in Columbus. Twelve days of filming will conclude at Clermont County's William H. Harsha Lake, in East Fork Lake State Park, where scenes depicting an escape across the Ohio River will be filmed.

Christopher Dressler, a 32-year-old Los Angeles actor, said it was "a tremendous honor" to play John Parker, who moved to Ripley in 1849. He ran an iron foundry and patented a series of inventions.

Dash, 52, says her goal is "to not only disseminate information, but to thrill the audience. The (story) structure has to be linear enough for us old guys to follow and appreciate. At the same time, you better have it poppin' for kids."

The film will be shown every 20 minutes in the Freedom Center's 100-seat Story Theatre. It will be an "environmental" space, with fog, wind, and other effects designed to make the audience feel as if they are perched on the riverbank.

E-mail jjohnston@enquirer.com