May 15, 2010, 10:30 AM
The Neon, Dayton, Ohio
June 25, 2009, 7PM
Athens County Public Library
Athens, Ohio
June 18, 2009, Noon
Yellow Springs Senior Center
Yellow Springs, Ohio
MVCC Cablecast
See MVCC website for ongoing dates
Channel 723 throughout Miami Valley
May 6, 8PM
May 10, 8PM
May 16, 10PM
DATV Cablecast
See DATV website for ongoing dates
Channel 20 Time Warner Cable
Dayton, Riverside, Butler Township
April 17, 6PM
April 21, 3PM
April 24, 6PM
April 30, Noon
May 5, 10AM
March 7, 2009, 1PM
Screened at daVinci Film Festival
Corvallis, Oregon
January 17, 2009, 11AM
Screening at Park City Film Music Festival, Silver Award For Excellence
Best Impact of Music in a Documentary
Park City, Utah
November 25, 2008, 7PM
Presentation at Film Dayton Film Connections at ThinkTV
November 16, 2008, 2PM
Screening at Wright Library,
Oakwood, Ohio
November 5, 2008, 10:30AM
Screening at Beavercreek Women’s League, Beavercreek Senior Center
October 2, 2008, 7PM
Screening at Beavercreek Library, Beavercreek, Ohio
August 20, 2008, 7PM
DVD signing at Blue Jacket Books, Xenia, Ohio
May 19, 2008, 7PM
Screening at Greene County Farm Forum, Xenia, Ohio
May 17, 2008, 10AM
Presentation at Cordage Institute annual meeting, Saddlebrook Resort, Tampa, Florida
April 25, 2008, 7PM
Premiere, Engineers Club of Dayton
News | Top
Ropewalk will be screened at the Film Dayton Fesitival. Saturday, May 15, 2010 at 10:30 AM, at The Neon, 130 E. 5th St., Dayton, Ohio. See Ropewalk on the Big Screen!
Ropewalk will be on MVCC, Time Warner Cable Channel 723 in the Miami Valley, and DATV, Time Warner Cable Channel 20 in Dayton, Riverside, and Butler Township. See airdates at right.
Ropewalk was screened at the da Vinci Film Festival in Corvallis, Oregon. “Of all the films accepted for our festival, I think Ropewalk might be the film that would have been of the greatest interest to our festival namesake. Leonardo da Vinci was a genius, true, but perhaps his greatest gift was that of boundless inquiry.”
Read the full story from Da Vinci Film Festival
Ropewalk received a Silver Award for Excellence for Best Impact of Music in a Documentary at the Park City Film Music Festival, Park City, Utah, on Saturday, January 17, 2009. At last year's Park City Film Music Festival, Ropewalk composer and musician Bruce Dalzell received a bronze medal for Best Impact of Music in a Documentary, for "A Forest Returns", coproduced by Ropewalk director Steve Fetsch with Jean Andrews.
Ropewalk included in holiday buying guide: Gifts of regional films on DVD wrapped with local pride, history, humor, horror. Dayton area filmmakers serve up something for everyone’s holiday film feast.
Ropewalk wins award: Ropewalk received a 2008 Award of Excellence in History Outreach from the Ohio Association of Historical Societies and Museums (OAHSM). The OAHSM History Outreach Awards, presented annually since 1959, recognize projects that have educational content, that have contributed to the promotion and understanding of local and state history, and that have had an impact on the community.
Ropewalk accepted in MERC Online Database: The Manufacturing Education Resource Center
(MERC) Online's searchable database has peer-
Wire Rope News magazine features Ropewalk as cover story:
“...A surprisingly fascinating local history lesson and a valentine to an unsung industry”
Duante Beddingfield, Wire Rope News
Wire Rope News Cover Story (PDF) (Faster, 3.7MB)
Wire Rope News Cover Story (PDF) (Hi-
Ropewalk premieres at the Engineers Club of Dayton:
April 25, 2008 Attendees filled the dining room and the better part of the auditorium. Soundtrack composer Bruce Dalzell performed live, and at a reception afterwards the crowd got to meet other participants like Athens filmmaker Steve Fetsch.
Mark Martel, The Engineers Club News
Reviews | Top
“Bill Hagenbuch, 89, knows how to spin a good yarn.”
Pamela Ferris-
Feature Story at Dayton Daily News
"The site of Xenia’s Hooven & Allison Company was destroyed
by fire in 2005, a year after the rope-
chief engineer and president, Beavercreek resident Bill Hagenbuch, is still telling the story of
Xenia’s historic role in America’s rope industry and the effect of rope on human history."
Aaron Keith Harris, Xenia Daily Gazette
Interview with Bill Hagenbuch (PDF)
”The film contains strong relevance to today, showing how earlier globalization drove the need to innovate, while corporate consolidation sparked antitrust reform.”
Mark Martel, The Engineers Club News
Kudos | Top
I have had the privilege of having a premier viewing of the movie "Ropewalk" and was impressed with the content. The movie tells the story of rope but also tells the story of an engineer who dedicated his life to the cordage industry. I have had the honor of knowing this gentleman since 1981 when he hired me to be the Sales Manager for Hooven & Allison in Xenia. I’m giving a DVD to our Board members, good customers, and each of our managers in Mexico. It will give them credibility they didn’t know they had.
Lyle Kelliher, CEO
Hooven-
Fellow Ropemakers , I must congratulate the whole team who have put together a magnificent video, with much interesting historic material, we are very lucky that The Engineers Club and the Cordage Institute have enabled Steve Fetsch to make the most of Bill Hagenbuch's knowledge of Hooven & Allison Ropewalk and all the old films. This is a must for any one interested in rope.
Des Pawson MBE
Footrope Knots Museum of Knots & Sailor's Ropework Ipswich, England
Congrats on finishing your film. I’m delighted that we could be of assistance. Yes, we would love a copy of the film. We will put it on the Archives Center’s “brag” shelf and make it available for use by AC researchers here at the Archives Center.
Wendy Shay
Motion Picture Archivist, Smithsonian Institute
Congratulations on the completion of the Hooven & Allison documentary -
Doris Johnson
Plymouth Cordage Museum, Massachusetts
We have received a copy of your "Ropewalk" CD, which is extremely interesting and will be added to our extensive collection of rope and net items, archive and photographs. Would you please pass on our thanks to whoever was responsible for mailing it to Bridport Museum and thinking that a copy would be useful in our collection. Bridport, in West Dorset, SW England has a long history associated with the rope and net industry dating back to at least the 1200's. Many thanks again,
Margaret Milree
Assistant Curator, Bridport Museum, England
I received the Ropewalk DVD and it's charming and interesting. Kudos to the Dayton Engineers for putting this together. I'm sharing it with some other tallship people so we can use it as part of teaching about knots and the marlinspike traditions.
Cheers, Catherine
Tall Ship Gazela
I just looked into your excellent website. The films are real documents on ropes and ropemaking. There is nothing comparable in Germany. Sure, I will add StoryOfRope.org to my list. Best regards too,
Karl Bareuther
Former Naval Commander, Germany
Thank you for sending the link to your documentary – what a great story! We’d like to place a piece about it in our next alumni newsletter.
Melanie L. Miller
MIT Chemical Engineering Department
I would very much like to have one of the cordage DVDs for our research materials.
Thank you for this generous offer to not-
Ann Albano
Executive Director, The Sculpture Center, Cleveland, Ohio
It is always wonderful to be in contact with other people who have a passion for preserving both prehistorical and historical skills. I would love to be able to show this video in our nature center for any park patron that is interested. The DVD sounds like it will be a great addition to our educational series.
Todd Young
Kentucky State Park Naturalist
I just received, and viewed my copy of "Ropewalk -
Mike Speranza
D&M Ropesmiths, Albany, New York
I enjoyed meeting your family last week at the Cordage Institute meeting. Ropewalk has been a big hit at our factory. Thank you for what your family has given the rope industry.
Bill Pearson
Pearson Industries, Prattville, Alabama
Premiere | Top
The Ropewalk documentary World Premiere on April 25 was a rousing success. Attendees filled the dining room and the better part of the auditorium. Soundtrack composer Bruce Dalzell performed live, and at a reception afterwards the crowd got to meet other participants like Athens filmmaker Steve Fetsch. The movie’s narrator, Club member Bill Hagenbuch, enjoyed friends and family who came from as far as Oregon and Switzerland to attend.
The film describes Xenia’s forgotten cordage industry and and the possible future of rope technology. Since “opening night” Ropewalk has reached cordage professionals, museum curators and rope enthusiasts around the world.
Thanks to generous donations of money and volunteer work, the project was self-
After WWII work in radar, Bill Hagenbuch spent his career making natural and synthetic rope at the Xenia, Ohio Hooven & Allison Company, – one of the last natural fiber rope companies in America until its 2004 closing. This forgotten industry once employed thousands locally.
Since his retirement in 1986, Hagenbuch kept the local history alive with community presentations. The new Ropewalk film preserves that history through extensive archival footage, photographs, and a companion website, www.StoryOfRope.org.
The film contains strong relevance to today, showing how earlier globalization drove the need to innovate, while corporate consolidation sparked antitrust reform. Ropewalk ties together such unlikely topics as prehistoric tools, Ben Franklin, the Industrial Revolution, railroads, hemp agriculture, drug laws, WWII, globalization, plastic,s carbon nanotubes, and space travel.
By Mark Martel
Reprinted from The Engineers Club News, Summer 2008
Ropewalk wins Ohio History Award
Ropewalk received a 2008 Award of Excellence in History Outreach from the Ohio Association of Historical Societies and Museums (OAHSM).
Purchase the DVD VideoIncludes three historical films and English subtitles.
A non-
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