A True Father & Sons Business

Carry It Through is a gorgeous short documentary. In 2014, Sara Quinn, who was a graduate student at The Salt Institute at Maine College of Art, reached out to Cottrell Boatbuilding to see if perhaps the two could team up to create a short documentary. Through expert filming and storytelling, Quinn created an absolutely stunningly beautiful video.

“Well, I had been looking for someone to do a video for us after being contacted by a filmmaker from Portland who wanted to use us in a beer commercial, but decided our shop wasn’t ‘authentic’ enough!” explains Lynn Cottrell.

Sometimes the Universe Intervenes

Cottrell had been in talks with a videographer friend who showed interest in creating a video but it wasn’t working out. That’s when Quinn contacted Cottrell out of the blue and the two hatched a plan.

“She was here for the better part of a day,” Cottrell says, “she spent most of her time talking to Dale in our living room.” Quinn did a magnificent job getting the usually quiet Dale Cottrell to open up and tell stories.

“She asked a lot of questions about how he learned his craft,” Cottrell explains. “And how long he had been doing it, what he loved about it, and where he thought it was headed.”

Quinn headed down to the shop where Seth Cottrell was busy shaping a plank. Both Seth and Dale can be seen in the video working on the project in the shop.

In addition, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. “People have loved the video,” Cottrell shares, “one person said what they really liked was that it portrayed Dale and Seth as the ‘real deal’.” Cottrell says that her favorite comment about the video was that Quinn was able to show ‘the old hard-working, humble Mainers, as real as a potato.’

The Cottrell family takes pride in their work that is being carried through to the next generation of boatbuilders. While Dale looks forward to retiring, his sons Seth and Ben will continue growing the business.