One of the problems with not writing a blog post every single day (sorry about that!) is that sometimes an interesting update occurs and by the time I get around to writing about it here, I have forgotten about it. Earlier tonight though, I saw a tweet about the subject I am going to take a few paragraphs to write about.
Kenley Matheson. Allan Kenley Matheson, to be exact, although he went by Kenley. He went missing from Wolfville on September 21, 1992. I did an article about the disappearance in my Frank cold case series, and it made the cover of the magazine, so there is that.
I did not know a whole bunch about the case. Just what I had read and the few things I had heard. But I certainly did know that a man named Ron Lamothe had done an online fundraising campaign to get enough money to do a documentary film about Kenley and what happened to him. That was back in 2013, nearly 8 full years ago. Sorry: "eight" because I am supposed to write out numbers less than 11 for the magazine, and the habit stays with me when I write something else.
I contacted Ron to see how the movie was going, probably four years ago now. He did not tell me much, as he had devoted years of his life to the story up to then, and was not finished by any means. But he thought of me and my offer to help him in any way by even writing an article for the magazine about, uh, certain things that had been hampering his production, shall we say.
Back in I guess it was the Fall of 2017, he wrote me out of the blue and asked if he could interview me for the film, which he said then might become a multi-part documentary series along the lines of any of those true crime long form shows you see on Netflix when your spouse is out of town.
We agreed to meet in Wolfville at a particular location at a particular time. I was ushered up to the recording room/studio in a downtown location. I removed my glasses because Ron feared that the glare they gave off would be disruptive to the filming process. And he asked me some questions about Kenley and what had happened, and because I signed an NDA, I really can't get too much into what I was asked and what I said.
After the recording, he and his producer and Patricia and I had lunch at Paddy's Pub. It was a pleasant enough lunch, but it was understood without having to say it, that we would not speak too much of the film/series.
I saw Ron one more time after that, in Wolfville, probably a year later. I had to remind him who I was and he was clearly off to something else so it was a brief encounter.
I and probably a whole bunch of other people spent the last bunch of years wondering when this series would be over. Imagine my surprise when I got the following email on September 3rd:
Seven weeks from today is the world premiere of Missing Kenley!
Ten years in the making—and now a 5-episode investigative docuseries, the first-ever screening of Missing Kenley will take place in Halifax, Nova Scotia, at the Neptune Scotiabank Stage Theatre on October 22nd & 23rd.
The release will be a two-night special event: on Friday, October 22nd, we will show episodes 1–3 (with an intermission between episodes 2 & 3); and on Saturday, October 23rd, we will show episodes 4 & 5 (with a Q&A and reception following the screening). Tickets will be available for purchase beginning in late September via the Neptune Theatre online box office.
We will also be bringing the film to Wolfville, Nova Scotia—where Kenley's disappearance took place in 1992 and the home of Acadia University—the following weekend (10/29 & 10/30) for a similar two-night event. This will take place at the historic Al Whittle Theatre on Main Street in downtown Wolfville. Information on ticket sales for this event will be provided in the weeks to come.
Right now we are very hopeful that Nova Scotia will enter Phase 5 of its COVID reopening plan on September 15th and that we will be able to hold these events at full seating capacity. However, if Phase 5 is not achieved or the border between the USA and Canada closes, these screenings may have to be postponed.
In any case, I am so excited to share this (long awaited, I know) news with all of you and look forward to seeing many of you in Halifax and/or Wolfville come October!
As for the film's broader distribution, what we can tell you now is that the worldwide rights for the series are being represented by the Toronto-based film sales agent SYNDICADO FILM SALES. It is their intention to make Missing Kenley available as broadly as possible via a major streaming service or the CBC, with hopes of a 2022 online release and/or broadcast. I will make that information available to everyone as soon as I am able.
In the meantime, you may be interested in taking a look at the Missing Kenley website (missingkenley.com) or following our Missing Kenley Twitter (@MissingKenley) and/or FB page. I will launch its Twitter feed this Sunday (9/5), the same date that 29 years ago Kenley and Kayrene left for Acadia. I will be starting the FB page back up on that day as well. And I intend to release the film's trailer online on September 21st—the anniversary date of Kenley's 1992 disappearance.
Thanks again to so many of you who either participated in the making of the series or donated to its Kickstarter campaign all those years ago! Without you this film could not have been made!
Best,
Ron Lamothe
producer-director of Missing Kenley
ron@missingkenley.com
I am not sure what he means by the "Neptune Scotiabank Theatre". Neptune Theatre was a movie palace many years ago, but I am inclined to think he means the theatres in Bayer's Lake, not far from Casa Bevboy. I must ask him.
I did write him, and he told me that I appear in the series "several times", so whatever the hell I said was sufficiently interesting to him and his editor that they decided to use a portion of it. We will have to see.
I do hope that you decide to check out this series, either when it plays in theatres in Halifax or Al Whittle in Wolfville. I plan to go.
By the way, after I did the interview with Ron and Emily a few years ago, I did hear a few more things about Kenley. It will be very interesting to see if what I heard, not reported in my article as I heard this stuff later on, turns out to be along the lines of what Ron has found out over the last decade(8 eight years since the fund raiser) he has been working on this.
I write these cold case articles, and for the most part, I move on to the next one; but sometimes, they take a hold of me and do not let go. I can name several cases that have kept me awake at night as I pondered what might have happened, why, and even how. I am not sure what has caused Ron to devote so many years of his life on this side project, when being a university professor should have been enough for anyone to handle, but I respect him for doing it. I look forward to seeing the finished project.
So should you.
See you tomorrow.
Bevboy
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