STEVE OUELLETTE, Features Editor

LAKE PLACID -- Winter Olympiads continue to expand in size and scope, too large -- in the opinion of many -- for a quaint little village like Lake Placid. Marc Nathanson, however, thinks otherwise.

"It couldn't happen with the Olympics in their current form, but I can foresee a day when there's sort of an Olympic backlash and people decide it's too bloated," said the one-time luge hopeful and former Lake Placid News reporter.

"It might not happen for a generation, but I think Lake Placid and the Olympics will meet again."

When that happens, Nathanson will have some reworking to do. But for now, his documentary, "Lake Placid: An Olympic History," will stand as the definitive retelling of how the village became America's Winter Sports Capital.

The 83-minute film, written and directed by Nathanson and co-produced with filmmaker Scott F. Carroll, was released this week on DVD. A special screening and reception will be held at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts featuring a question-and-answer session with the filmmakers.

The film has been shown publicly just once before, as part of Lake Placid's 25th Anniversary celebration of the 1980 Games last February.

"There's nothing like screening a documentary in front of 300 people who lived it to make sure you got all the details right," chuckled Nathanson.

Since that time, he has tinkered with the film, correcting a few small flaws, adding a new beginning and "making some artistic improvements.

"The biggest thing in the last year has been getting all the rights clearances," said Nathanson. "The ABC footage was the single greatest challenge."

The seminal footage of the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" hockey team defeating the Russians, with announcer Al Michaels asking "Do you believe in miracles?" wasn't a problem when Nathanson was showing the film one time for charity. The network was a little more prickly when it came to putting the footage on a DVD.

That, however, will appear, along with other highlights from the 1980 and 1932 Games -- including Lake Placid's Jack Shea winning the first gold medal, in speedskating -- and an amazing array of rare pictures, video and audio telling the unlikely and compelling story of how Lake Placid acquired the Games.

"There are probably better than 300 individual photos, elements, film clips."

Among the gems Nathanson unearthed was an audio recording of the Rev. J. Bernard Fell's 1978 eulogy of Ron MacKenzie, a driving force behind Lake Placid's bid to land the 1980 Games.

He also succeeded in an exhaustive quest to get the taped voice of Godfrey Dewey, who almost single-handedly brought the 1932 Olympics to the Adirondacks.

"The goal for this thing was for the story to be told in the words of people who lived it," said Nathanson, now a producer for New York One News in New York City. "Right from the start I knew I had to find some recording of Godfrey Dewey ... he's such a pivotal part of the history. But I had no idea how the heck I was going to do that."

Nathanson found at the Lake Placid Winter Olympic Museum -- a source of many of the items in the film -- a transcript of an interview done by St. Lawrence University for an oral history of the Games.

"His interview was among the transcripts, so I had proof that he'd given an audio interview," said Nathanson. Still, he didn't know where it was.

"I eventually found it in a catalog of tapes at the Lake Placid Public Library, and it forms a real important part of the movie."

Nathanson has been to three Winter Olympics, though he missed the 1980 Games and didn't get to Lake Placid until 1984, when he thought he'd try the sport of luge.

That didn't turn out so well, but he got a job working for the luge team as a publicist, then moved on to the Lake Placid News for four years.

Nathanson then went back to school for a degree in broadcast journalism, "and this idea started fermenting."

When he heard about the 25th anniversary celebration, he pitched the documentary idea to the Olympic Museum, then took a leave of absence to work on it.

"We had to do it in about eight months," said Nathanson. "It took a lot of late nights and the help of a lot of people."

The result is like a good book that can't be put down ... or maybe an entire museum on film.

"I have a great affection for the town and I did it as a labor of love," he said. "The idea was for it to be sort of a permanent record that will stand for a long time."

He's willing to wait for a new final chapter.

"When I began the project I didn't think Lake Placid would ever get the Games again ... absolutely not," he said. "After making this film, I'm convinced that they could."