Judy Blume fans of a certain age likely recall where they were when they read her groundbreaking coming-of-age novel “Forever …,” first published in 1975. (I was in my childhood bedroom on Lambert’s Cove Road, and the moment I finished the book I slipped it to my best friends. Such was the way with Judy Blume books.)
This summer, 50 eventful years after the book was published, “Forever…” has been adapted into a Netflix series. And while no part of the original book takes place on the Vineyard, episode five of the eight-part series is set on the Island, and was filmed here.
Series creator and showrunner Mara Brock Akil recalled the fervor around the book at her school: “The middle school girls were passing it around. Pages were falling out, and paper clips were holding it together.”
Akil credited Blume with giving her insights into what her sexual future might look like, and said that Blume was a major influence on what she described as her “writing journey”: “We become writers as readers, and her seasoning is in the recipe of me.”
Like Blume’s novel, the Netflix series explores the passionate intensity and complexity of young love. However, the series takes place a couple of years before the pandemic, and rather than suburban New Jersey in the 1970s, the lead characters live in Los Angeles, vacation on the Vineyard, and are Black.
“In the book, the young lovers go skiing with family. But Mara loves the Vineyard, so in the series she sends the family there, and it’s a lovely episode,” commented Judy Blume, who has also spent many summers on the Vineyard.
The Vineyard episode opens with a montage of shots: Vineyard Haven Harbor, the Dockside in Oak Bluffs, and a young boy jumping off “Jaws” Bridge. From that moment on, it’s clear that Akil, a longtime Vineyard visitor, isn’t simply using the Vineyard as a symbol, but is shooting a love letter to the Island. “The Vineyard is one of the safest places I know to be Black in America,” Akil said.
Akil admitted that she was a bit nervous about bringing a camera crew to the Island — and is grateful for the dexterity and hard work of the location manager, Mark Fitzgerald. As readers may recall, the town of Chilmark denied the production a permit to film in the town, although Molly and Eric Glasgow allowed them access to shoot at Grey Barn. “I was concerned that the Island may not have wanted us there, because it’s a place of refuge,” Akil said. But once they arrived, “we experienced people really welcoming us.”
As the episode begins, Keisha (Lovie Simone) and Justin (Michael Cooper Jr.) are on the outs. Justin’s extended family is vacationing on the Vineyard, and Keisha decides to travel to the Island to try to rekindle things. The episode begins with Keisha arriving on the ferry. It is the summer of 2018, and she disembarks with her friend Chloe (Ali Gallo) and heads up onto Union Street among a crowd of extras.
J.D. Naron was one of those extras. He explained that he was told to bring several changes of clothing. “They had us all sitting in the Grange Hall, and they would say, ‘We need 10 people. You, you, you, come with us,’” Naron said. The selected extras headed out to shoot the scene while the others waited for the next round. “The days we shot on Main Street, Vineyard Haven, we were outside all day. They gave me some guy’s daughter, and said, ‘This is your daughter now.” (Naron did make screen time.)
Watching movies shot on the Vineyard turns Islanders into persnickety fact checkers who have been known — at least this one has — to yell at the screen when films that take place here get it wrong, often because they were filmed elsewhere. (No! We don’t have streetlights and parking meters.) But this episode of “Forever” captured not just the look of the Island, but also the heart, from Circuit Ave., where the Strand Theater has been beautifully rehabilitated — may life imitate art, please! — to yoga at the Inkwell, to the arcade and the basketball courts.
And up-Island, there is a sunset picnic at Philbin Beach and a visit to Grey Barn when Keisha first arrives and asks, “Where are, like, all the Black people?”
Some members of the cast and crew had been to the Island before, but Akil introduced a number of them to the Vineyard for the first time –– and not just the Vineyard, but the month of May on the Vineyard. “Every day we were challenged by the weather, but it turned out that a lot of it was what was needed for the camera. We may have been a little cold, but, you know, thank God for coats and scarves,” she said. “I will say, poor Lovie. I remember days that she had to shoot. It was freezing, and we had her out there, and she had to pretend it was hot.”
Akil’s reverence for the Island comes across onscreen and off. “It was very important to me that we did not hurt or damage the Island,” she said. “We talked about that in our production meetings, that this place is sacred.”
In May it was announced that “Forever” had been picked up for a second season. I asked Akil if they’d be coming back in season two. “In my dream of dreams I can say that I would love to return to the Vineyard in the lifespan of this story. So whether it happens in season two, or season three, or another time, I do believe that the Vineyard is a part of ‘Forever.’”