The Quest for the Dale

A Film Director’s Earnest Adventure

Get busy living, or get busy dying.” “ (Ellis Boyd “Red” Redding, The Shawshank Redemption)

If you were to spend any time talking with Nick Cammilleri ’05, you’d discover that he’s done anything but sit around waiting for life to happen. Since his graduation from Bridgton nearly 20 years ago, Nick’s perseverance and determination—often in the face of adversity—have motivated him to stay busy truly living his best life.

In January of this year, a four-part documentary, The Lady and The Dale, aired on HBO. The series was directed by Nick

Cammilleri along with Zackary Drucker.

This intriguing story traces the life of entrepreneur Elizabeth Carmichael, who rose to prominence when she released a fuel-efficient, three-wheeled vehicle called the Dale, during the height of the 1970s gas crisis. As she won over major carmakers and investors, a web of mystery unfolded as well, regarding not only the car’s technology, but also Elizabeth’s surprising past.

For Nick, it was a story ten years in the making, with beginnings that took root in North Bridgton. During his Academy year, Nick was introduced to the film The Shawshank Redemption in one of his classes. It instantly became one of his all-time favorites. Nick recalls purchasing a DVD player and a copy of Shawshank. “I watched it every day until I was done that year.” From that moment on, Nick knew that he wanted to pursue a filmmaking career. Although his time at Bridgton had been filled with highs and lows, Nick’s newfound desire to pursue screenwriting motivated him. He was eager to take his next steps. His destination? California—the place where movies are born.

In 2005, anxious as he was to get to Hollywood, Nick “struck a deal” with his family that he would stay in New England for a single year, ultimately deciding to matriculate at Plymouth State. As luck would have it, Plymouth partnered with Cal State during this time in a type of campus exchange program that afforded Nick a fast-track out West, with a degree in screenwriting soon to follow. Life was moving quickly for Nick: he was busy forming connections with people and gaining real-life experience that only fueled his filmmaking pursuits. Whether it was meeting directors or working on sets, Nick was hungry for opportunities that would enable him to grow and learn.

The filmmaking stage was set, but Nick still needed a story. While watching a rerun of Unsolved Mysteries one day, inspiration hit. Nick was reeled in by a tale that was ready for the taking—the story of Mrs. Elizabeth Carmichael. Seeing himself as a “custodian of history,” the aspiring filmmaker knew that he could be the one to tell Mrs. Carmichael’s story to the world. Nick describes her as an “incredibly fearless woman who lived her truth, despite knowing what she would face.” He concluded that she “was the living embodiment of survival as heroism.” Nick was inspired to share this intriguing story with others before it simply vanished into history.

For Nick, unraveling the tale of Carmichael and the Dale was a decade-long journey—a time filled with seemingly more downs than ups and moments when he was simply ready to call it quits. In pursuit of his story, Nick financed his work by driving 80 hours a week with Lyft. When he wasn’t driving, he spent countless hours making calls and sending correspondence to discover more about Carmichael’s life. Despite the huge amount of time and effort Nick was putting in, he just wasn’t finding the information he needed and found himself questioning if he was chasing a ghost. As he traversed the country researching, writing, and filming, the miles on his car were adding up. Many nights, he found himself crashing on someone’s sofa; other times he rested in even less desirable places—including the floor of an old tattoo parlor.

Eventually, Cammilleri found himself broke and forced to move back to his parents’ home in New Hampshire. In spite of this hardship, Nick knew that he had to continue what he had started and work towards his ultimate goal of becoming a director. “I am good at spotting the story that others have overlooked,” Nick shares. “This incredible story was just sitting right there and no one had done anything with it. If I told this tale, I knew people would watch it.”

Seemingly out of the blue, Nick began to experience some “lucky breaks.” Producers Andre Gaines and Allen Bain expressed an interest in his work. Two automobile accidents within two years found Nick the recipient of settlement money, which one may not view as “lucky,” but to Nick, it was provision to continue funding his work. Another big break came when he located the blueprints to the Dale. “All of a sudden, the story had become like an onion,” Nick reflects. “I kept peeling and there were still more layers—the details were getting better and better!” The Lady and the Dale was finally coming together, but one of the biggest hurdles Nick still had to leap was getting the family to agree to an interview.

Outreach to the Carmichael family was relentless. Candi Michael, one of Elizabeth Carmichael’s daughters, was the best candidate to be interviewed for the film. At first, Candi simply would not agree to it, stating on numerous occasions, “It’s not my story to tell.” Finally, her siblings and her son, Nathan, convinced her that it really was her story. There were grandchildren who only knew the five-minute version of all that had happened in the life of Elizabeth Carmichael, and even the family wanted to know about this woman who had lived through so much.

So, who was Mrs. Elizabeth Carmichael? Born Jerry Dean Michael and living in a time when being transgender was largely misunderstood, Carmichael’s story included faking her own death, disappearing for several years, and returning as Geraldine Elizabeth Carmichael. Always an entrepreneur, Carmichael started the 20th Century Motor Car Corporation to manufacture a car she called the Dale. When it was discovered that her company was fraudulent, Carmichael fled with the investors’ money, living the majority of the rest of her life with her children on the run. Interviewing Elizabeth’s daughter, Candi, was paramount to the HBO series—she held the key to so many firsthand stories and details that nobody else could unlock. When Nick finally secured and completed the interview with Candi, the production of The Lady and the Dale was at last reaching the finish line.

In any conversation you have with Nick, you can’t help but notice his confidence. As he reflects on the many obstacles he overcame to complete this film, Nick’s optimism and positivity shine through. When the time came to pitch his film, Nick landed an interview with the Duplass Brothers, which he knew would be his best fit. After a one-hour meeting, the team agreed to be the film’s executive producer and as they say, “the rest is history.”

Looking in the rearview mirror, it’s been a long road for Cammilleri to get to this place. Now that he’s found success, he knows he has so much more that he wants—and needs—to do. Fifteen minutes after the premiere of The Lady and The Dale, Nick had offers for new documentary projects. He declined. While the story, combined with his passion for not wanting to see a piece of history lost, drove Nick on this film, he explains, “My journey of making The Lady and The Dale is ultimately one of me going from screenwriter to director, as my intention from the start was to use it as a training ground for directing. Documentaries are great because you’re lighting, shooting, and editing all the time, often over a decadelong period, so you become a better and better director with each shoot you do.” And so, Nick begins a new path—the journey to direct his first feature film. Through it all, he knows there will be ups and downs, twists and turns, but fueled by his passion, Nick looks forward to the road ahead.

BA

This intriguing story traces the life of entrepreneur Elizabeth Carmichael, who rose to prominence when she released a fuel-efficient, three-wheeled vehicle called the Dale, during the height of the 1970s gas crisis. As she won over major carmakers and investors, a web of mystery unfolded as well, regarding not only the car’s technology, but also Elizabeth’s surprising past.