 According moving picture archives Northeast Historic Film (NHF), these themes include Development of Yankee Characters, Smalltown Life Contrasted with city Values, Seafaring Tales, Family Secrets, and Haunted New England.These themes, rooted in centuries of New England culture, are complemented by the region's diverse natural landscape and architecture, from the Atlantic Ocean and brilliant fall foliage to church steeples and skyscrapers.After the motion picture's introduction to New England in the late 1800s, the region saw a boom in film production in the 1930s and 1940s due to the spread of talking pictures or "talkies."