SHAWSHANK

movie, written and directed by Frank Darabont, has become one of the most beloved films of all time. Set in Maine, it was shot in and around Mansfield in the summer of 1993, primarily at the Ohio State Reformatory.

This weekend, the former prison, now a museum and tourist attraction, is hosting the Shawshank 25th Anniversary. It kicked off Friday night with a screening of the film at the historic, 1,400-seat Renaissance Theatre in Mansfield (where the film premiered in September 1994).

“Let’s call it ‘Once Upon a Time in Mansfield,’” joked Tom Clark, who is organizing the weekend for the Mansfield Reformatory Preservation Society.

“The film is currently ranked as the No. 1 movie of all time on the Internet Movie Database. People from all over the world make their pilgrimage here. We’ve had visitors from New Zealand, Thailand, Japan. This weekend will be a ‘Shawshank’ lover’s dream.”

Saturday afternoon will feature a meet-and-greet with the director and cast members in the Central Guard Room.

“Unlike other movie gatherings, where the meet-and-greets are in a Boarding-house scenes in “The Shawshank Redemption” were filmed inside the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield. • For a complete list of events in Mansfield and other Ohio sites, visit Shawshanktrail.com.

convention center, here you are getting an autograph and taking a photo literally where the movie was shot,” Clark said.

There also will be a Shawshank reception on Saturday night. On Sunday, three panel-discussion sessions will feature authors of Shawshank-related books, background actors from the area and crew members who worked on the film.

The prison, a 250,000 square-foot Victorian/ Gothic monster, closed in 1990. In addition to “Shawshank,” several films, TV shows and music videos have been shot there. It hosts tours, Halloween Haunts and other events year-round. For the weekend, the staff has spruced

up five rooms, which now constitute the Shawshank Museum.

“The Shawshank Museum is five rooms in and around where Warden Norton’s office was in the film,” Clark said. “Our curator, Becky Mckinnell, has done an amazing job. We are not only restoring the office, but the adjoining rooms are now filled with treasures from the movie.”

What is it about this drama that garners so much attention 25 years later?

“The movie is about the power of friendship, perseverance, redemption and keeping hope alive under the most desperate of circumstances,” said Mark Dawidziak, the Cuyahoga Falls author and critic whose latest book is “The Shawshank Redemption Revealed: How One Story Keeps Hope Alive,” which is

set for release Sept. 19.

“When the movie was released 25 years ago, the economy was good and things seemed pretty promising on all fronts,” Dawidziak said. “With each passing year, we've become more divided and the future seems more and more uncertain. So, on both a societal and personal level, those basic messages of the film are far more resonant now than they were in 1994.”

On the panel with Dawidziak will be Maura Grady and Tony Magistrale, authors of “The Shawshank Experience: Tracking the History of the World’s Favorite Movie,” and Kary Oberbrunner, the man behind “Day Job to Dream Job,” a self-help book inspired by the movie and the prison.

Visitors to the events this weekend will find not only a spruced-up museum and new Shawshank items in the gift shop, but the Reformatory also will be serving a limitededition libation.

“We made a root beer,” Clark said. “Remember the scene in the film where the inmates are drinking beer on the roof? We got permission from the Pabst Brewing Company, which owns the rights to the Stroh’s label — that was the beer in the movie, Stroh’s Bohemian Style. Their legal department granted us clearance on a label that is inspired by the label in the movie.”

The name: “Shawshank Suds.”