The film focuses on female empowerment in the 1960s, Nazareth filmmaker Michael Owen said.
An independent filmmaker Thursday plans to take over the downtown streets of Nazareth.
Michael Owen, a native of Kentucky who moved to the borough in 2012, will film, "Control," a flick based on the changing roles of women in the early 1960s. The film follows five female characters and the choices they have to make between socioeconomic statuses and the changing times.
"'Control' is the story of the changing perception of women in America," Owen said on the movie's website. "The quiet but unmistakable presence of Jacquelyn Bouvier Kennedy and her assertion before, during, and after her husband's assassination in the 1960's, pave the way for many American women to question the 'control' that has been placed over them for so very long."
People are venturing farther than they ever have before on new interstate highways, and this freedom to travel and the rise of the divorce rate in the early 1960s have many women entering the workplace due to this new change, Owen says on his site.
This spawns a new era in the decisions and choices that women are making with regards to where they live, whom they are with and what they will or will not settle for in their relationships, he said.
Owen and his wife, Jennifer Owen, executive producer, will use 25 classic cars, spanning 1948 to 1961, and an estimated 400 pieces of wardrobe. Police will shut down Main Street from Mauch Chunk Street to the circle for most of Thursday.
Owen also is filming the facade and interior of the 18,400-square-foot Nazareth National Bank building, 76 S. Main St. The classic federal building went up in the 1900s and now is vacant after being sold on May 8 to Main Street Nazareth LLC.
Owen on Wednesday was beginning to stage the inside of the bank building for the film. He plans to film council chambers, 159 W. Center St., on Friday and move to a private borough residence by Saturday, he said.
Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.