Film Overview

In September 1943, in the remote fishing village of Corea, Maine, the manuscript of a secret, unpublished narrative titled “Cleophas and His Own” was discovered among Hartley’s personal belongings just a few days after his death.
73 years later, first-time, independent filmmaker Michael Maglaras has used Hartley’s poignant narrative as the screenplay for a feature-length film.

“Cleophas and His Own” presents Hartley (played by Maglaras) very near the end of his life. As the film opens, Hartley makes his way to his studio, where, tired, alone, and gravely ill, he recounts to an unseen visitor a sad story of the fate that befell the Mason family, with whom he spent two summers on a remote Nova Scotia island in 1935 and 1936. Those two summers forever transformed Hartley’s work as an artist, and so transformed the history of American art.