RCA: Press Coverage

Documenting Reston’s History
For three years now, Steve Resz has been working on a documentary film of Reston.
By Jason Hartke - July 29, 2005 - Reston Connection

Reston resident Steve Resz has had success as a published author, a leathersmith and an information manager in telecommunications. Sometime this fall, he hopes to add documentarian to the list.

For the past three years, Resz, 59, has been working on a video documentary, called "Reston: Past, Present and Future," which tries to capture the essence of Reston: its people, its places, and its history.

"I started giving a lot of thought as to what structure the movie should be — one year in time, not any particular year — and in that I would also weave in the 40 year history of Reston but I actually go back to the Potomac Indians," said Resz.

In a room in Resz’s Northgate home, he’s set up a sophisticated mixture of state-of-the-art computer equipment — the latest Apple G5 computer, a 23-inch Apple flat-screen monitor, and several stacked external hard drives. He has spent long hours editing hundreds of hours of Reston video footage into a comprehensive two-hour story of this planned community. To do so, Resz has dedicated countless hours researching the history of Reston.

"Historically, I find it fascinating that Dr. Wiehle in the 1890’s had started a planned community on the same property," said Resz, explaining Reston’s past. "He died and then it petered out, and then the Bowman’s who got the property in the late [1920s], commissioned an urban planning company [in the 1950s] to design a town here — a self contained satellite city is what it was called back then." That didn’t work either and then Reston’s namesake, Robert E. Simon Jr., came into the picture. "So Simon was the third attempt, and the third time is a charm," said Resz.

BUT RESZ’S TIME has not all been spent researching Reston. While today Resz has become a quasi-historian of Reston, three years ago he was wrapping up a 30-year career in telecommunications. It isn’t coincidence that he transitioned into a life of video-documentary.

"I was working for British Telecom here in Reston during the tech-internet bubble and simultaneously I was getting interested in video," said Resz. "I learned about the new, fairly inexpensive professional cameras and the software that also had come down in price."

Resz knew he wouldn’t be in telecommunications forever, nor did he want to. "I said to myself, ‘you know I’m going to get fired, laid off or something within a year,’ so I sped up my project plan," he said. "The idea originally was to get some video equipment and start to get into it as a sideline and possibly something I could turn into a full-time career or at least as a career in retirement."

After buying thousands of dollars worth of equipment, Resz had to learn how to use it. "I had absolutely no training or background in this whatsoever," Resz said about his prior experience. "I’m a great one for buying books to learn how to do things." The technique Resz chose for learning how to use the video cameras helped guide him to the decision to do the Reston documentary. "I said to myself I have to run a tape through these cameras, I got to get used to doing it," said Resz. "The old adage ‘write what you know’ came to mind, and well I guess it’s like 'film what’s around you.'"

FROM THERE, RESZ began showing up at Reston events and locations to practice using his professional video camera. "I thought if I do this in some organized fashioned I could have an entry about Reston," said Resz, who decided then to commit to a project focused on Reston, where he’s lived for eight years. "It would show what I could do."

Still six months from being laid off, Resz’s first camera arrived Sept. 12, 2001. "If I had had a camera on 9/11 I would have left my office and jumped in my car and headed to the Pentagon," he said.

Now that Resz is working on the film’s editing, he has begun to notice interesting characteristics of Reston. "One thing that strikes me particularly through the editing, is that just how many times water was in the picture," said Resz. "Now that’s not just the lakes, it’s the pools — we have 15 pools."

Resz has also taken his camera out on kayak rides on every lake in Reston to capture footage. He’s taken footage of several creeks that run through Reston. "In most communities you wouldn’t see that," said Resz of all the water in the area. "The flip side of that … one thing you note from the air is the almost complete lack of swimming pools behind homes," said Resz, who rented out a helicopter to get aerial footage of Reston.

Another thing Resz has noticed about Reston is the large amount of trees and vegetation throughout the community. After filming several hours on the streets of Reston, he noticed that it was "boring" because of all the trees that line the streets.

AS THE DOCUMENTARY’S sole producer, Resz has pursued this project on his own "nickel." It is not only his new career, but also the focus of his newly-created company, called Impact Video. The Reston documentary will be the first film released by the company.

"I had a fair amount of savings that funded me over the 3-plus years now," he said. "I’m now seeking sponsorships which will be in the movie and will run with the credits, and these sponsorships will actually pay for the DVD discs." Resz is confident that people interested in Reston, people who want to learn more about the community’s vast history, will be interested in the story he’s woven together.

"If what I set out to do which is to take the camera and point it at the community for a year or so and just capture what it is and try to get to its essence," said Resz, "I think I’ve done that." When the Reston film is done and distributed, Resz plans to direct his keen eye for community history on Loudoun County.

WITH A FIRM understanding of where Reston has been, Resz has concerns about where Reston is going. "I’m very nervous of the future," he said. "Reston has no political voice, no political control over its zoning." Resz is concerned that without political power, residents won’t be able to stop "a lot of bad development and redevelopment because it will be done piecemeal without a plan."
"I mean the irony is that this is a planned community and the plan ended," said Resz. Providing examples, Resz mentioned the redevelopment of the Hunters Woods Village Center.

"It’s ugly, it’s a lot of asphalt, it’s a sea of cars, it’s exactly the kind of thing that Simon was fighting against, trying to plan against, trying to create a community that would not have that sort of thing and that’s redevelopment."

But Resz thinks Restonians won’t be able to stop development encroaching on Simon’s vision. "There are a lot of people in Reston that don’t like what happened [at Hunters Woods], but I’ll say again, they are powerless to stop it and so I don’t see how, unless they become a town government," he said.

"I’m very nervous about Reston’s future in the way it’s going willy-nilly at the desire and behest of commercial developers whose interests are so different," he said.

Resz remains confident that Reston will continue to be a great community, but thinks it could be even greater in the future with local town government. Whether Reston goes this route or not, be assured that Resz will be watching.

RETURN TO PRESS HOMEPAGE