GARDINER — “Northeast by Eastern” will be screened at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 9, at Johnson Hall Performing Arts Center, Water Street. Doors open at 7 p.m.

The film, history and live music combine to illustrate a way of life from a simpler, more patient, yet enterprising American era. The film and music is by Sumner McKane, the live music is by McKane and Josh Robbins.

For years, Belfast-based Eastern Illustrating and Publishing Company sent traveling photographer-salesmen on the roads all over New England and beyond with cameras, catalogues and order books, seeking buyers and markets for their unique “real photo” postcards.

The “Northeast by Eastern” combines Eastern Illustrating and Publishing Company’s comprehensive collection of early 20th century photographs with archival film footage, interviews, oral histories, a musical soundtrack featuring period music, as well as an original score by McKane. Combined, these stories and images illustrate an era unlike any other in American history. Interviews and oral histories not only detail the history of the company and the postcard craze of the early 1900s; but also divulge stories from a quieter, simpler, yet stirring and enterprising time period. The audience can hear first-hand accounts of smuggling during prohibition, of river drivers brawling for fun, of growing up without worry and without constant adult supervision, and of slop buckets spilling on tourists’ pies. These accounts are woven together amidst a backdrop of archived films and Eastern Illustrating’s work.

Tickets cost $16 for adults, $14 for seniors and $5 for children.

Tickets are available between noon and 3 p.m. Monday through Wednesdsay and Friday at Johnson Hall’s Box Office, call 582-7144 or visit www.johnsonhall.org.