Fell’s Point Out of Time

a poignant, provocative, sometimes funny, always revealing look at a community coping with change

Overview of the Documentary

Fell’s Point is that strange amalgam or anomaly—a town within another town. A bustling deep water port while our country was still struggling for independence, Fell’s Point was dragged kicking and screaming within Baltimore’s borders, and never quite got over it. As a result, the community has maintained its own personality and spirit, to this day stubbornly resisting changes to its essential rough and tumble nature.

Although surrounded by signs and symbols of progress, Fell’s Point, at least so far, retains the look and feel of an 18th century sailor town. A darling of travel writers, a worthy tourist destination, a bar scene, a marketplace, a virtual melting pot of a neighborhood Fell’s Point touches something essential and true in all who come in contact with her. So why are so many people always fighting about Fell Point’s past and future?

Producer/Director Jacquie Greff trains her camera on Fell’s Point and the people who live in or frequent this remarkable village. Everyone has a story to tell, and these stories form the narrative. From shop owner to community activist, historian to artisan, real estate developer to the cop on the beat, all of their perspectives merge to tell a story about a place unlike any other, in or out of time.

Fell’s Point Out of Time (2004) is the story of Baltimore Maryland’s historic waterfront community, from its early years as the home of the famed privateers, “legal pirates” who provided much of the United States’ early naval resources, to its decline and near-demolition, and its current controversial rebirth. Fell’s Point’s story is told by its friends and residents using interview clips arranged conversation-style with overlaid scenes of the community and archival photographs.