Toga Triggers: New Saratoga Film Sparks Title Controversy
SARATOGA SPRINGS — What’s in a name? Plenty when it comes to how some local residents see themselves represented.
A new movie by local filmmaker Shaun Rose is garnering loud feedback from some in the community in which the movie was made – largely due to its one-word title: Toga.
“I’ve never seen this before with any type of movie on any type of level. The fanatical ones, they’re at me like rabid animals,” Rose says.
The 61-minute film tells Rose’s continuing story of a person progressing through different stages of their life. Released in January, “Toga” follows freelance videographer ‘Ellis Martin’ on assignment, scouting locations in the town where he was raised.
“I grew up in Saratoga Springs over on the west side of town by the high school,” says Rose. “Toga” is a semi-autobiographical film and a sequel to his previous work, “Upstate Story.”
“Getting into some of the biographical details of the movie, just channeling that, I think has been very therapeutic for me,” says the 37-year-old filmmaker.
“The character is a fictionalized version of me, but there’s a lot of truth in that movie; Capturing me at different aspects, different time periods of my life,” says Rose, who handled most of the writing, directing, acting, and image-making/editing of the independent film. “Pretty much everything; tackling so many different roles, but I did have some help,” he says.
“It has received good reviews from outside sources and has built up quite a few views over on YouTube. But it’s been controversial, to say the least – mostly due to the name alone and I’ve received a lot of hate from fellow locals over the shortening of our town name,” says Rose, privately sharing some of the more personally focused messages he received. Rose isn’t wrong in his labeling of these as “outright vulgar and disgusting. My girlfriend and co-producer received some as well.”
Saratoga: What’s In A Name
There is more than one Saratoga in the U.S. – a town in Wyoming, a city in California, and a Saratoga Springs in Utah, among them. Closer to home, the Town of Saratoga Springs was set apart from the Town of Saratoga in 1819. It was incorporated as a village in 1826, and in 1915 the City of Saratoga Springs came into existence. Its translation and spelling are varied:
• “Saratoga after an Iroquois Indian word Sarachtoue, which translates to “place of miraculous water in the rock.” – Visit Saratoga Wyoming, Carbon County Visitors Council.
• “Saratoga, it is said, is derived from an Iroquois word, Se-rach-to-que, literally, ‘floating scum upon the water,’ a completely understandable interpretation to be put on the presence of mineral deposits showing up as vari-colored film on the surface of a pond.” – Saratoga Historical Foundation, Saratoga California.
• “Among the earliest dates in which the name Saratoga appears in history is the year 1684. It was not then the name of a town, nor of a county, neither was it the name of a great watering-place; but it was the name of an old Indian hunting-ground located along both sides of the Hudson River…Se-rach-ta-gue, or the “hill-side country of the great river.”- Nathaniel Bartlett Sylvester, 1878, History Of Saratoga County, N.Y.
Toga? What People Are Saying
An inquiry posted this week on locally focused social media channels asking folks to reply with their preferred usage of “Saratoga” vs. “Toga” returned more than 200 comments.
Some said they took no issue with either. Others pointed to the two-syllable “to-ga” as affording a clean and simple chant at high school sporting events.
Those opposed to the abbreviated version – which counted more than twice as many commentators – said they had either had never heard the phrase uttered, or set blame for its usage on everything from “the younger generation” and summertime “invaders from New Jersey” to John Belushi’s portrayal of the bellicose toga-draped John “Blutto” Blutarsky in the 1978 film “Animal House.”
Here are some of the comments:
• Calling Saratoga Toga is like calling your father “the old man,” or calling your mother by her first name, or calling your wife “my old lady”, etc. etc. Sounds cool to those of the same mindset. Lived in the area for most of my life and TOGA is just one of the many little things that irk some of us “OLD TIMERS” – Don.
• “Toga” is a nickname used by Saratoga high athletics only. Anyone else referring to Saratoga as Toga is a Neanderthal – Scott.
• We don’t call it ‘Toga. New people do – Michele.
• Toga a known cheer and chant. Nothing wrong with it. Everyone knows where Toga is – Barbara.
• My dad is 79 and my mom is 73. We’ve all lived here our whole lives. I know plenty of “old” Saratogians and I’ve never heard it – Amber.
• TOGA was probably made popular by a drunken frat boy – Heather.
• Lifelong born and raised, graduated from SSHS. It has always been shortened to Toga – Dee.
• Been here since 1956. Toga is an abomination. Nobody called it that when I was growing up… and get off my lawn while you’re at it – Eric.
• Notice that cranky “baby boomers” are the only ones offended – Bruce.
• Bruce – boomer here…not offended. SSHS class of ‘79 and we used to chant this at basketball and football games, taking a page from Animal House – Cathy.
• This must be coming from people who were NOT raised in Saratoga. No one I know of calls it Toga – Joan.
• Lifelong resident and it’s always been Toga! My kids, current students, call it Toga! Never found it offensive or complained about the shortened name. A lot easier to chant “let’s go Toga!” – LeeAnn.
• True natives say “Sara-doga” born there, raised there, still return any time I can. Never heard the Roman sheet reference until recent times. Kind of goes with backward ball caps and flips flops, not good – Brian.
• I have called it both. At sporting events it was yelled as Toga but I normally said just Saratoga. I was not born and raised here but my kids call it both. Don’t really get what there is to be offended by but I guess that’s the way of the world at present. – Jonna.
Rose first became Inspired to make films while growing up watching movies that came into his home from the video rental store that stood in the strip mall on South Broadway.
“I used to go there all the time with my family and rent movies. I just fell in love with movies as a teenager,” he says.
“I always try to make movies to connect with people. Outside the obvious title fiasco, I’ve gotten positive feedback from a lot of people who have liked it. Something that people can connect with,” Rose says.
“When we usually see coming of age movies -it’s common to see kids transitioning into teenagers, or teenagers into adults – but what about further areas of adulthood? We don’t really see that. I think we as people never stop growing, or maturing, bettering ourselves. It’s constantly a learning curve,” he says. “I try to make things that people can connect with, a story I’m trying to tell, and balance it with comedy or drama so people can be entertained by it as well.”
The film may be viewed on YouTube by searching “Shaun Rose” and “Toga.” Note, the film contains mature themes and strong language.
