About 15 Vicksburg residents will find themselves larger than life on the big screen this week.

The first new Vicksburg National Military Park visitor orientation film in nearly 40 years will premiere at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Southern Cultural Heritage Center.

More than a dozen Vicksburg residents play feature roles in the film, called “Where Brothers Fought.” Local landmarks are also featured, including interior scenes shot at Anchuca and Duff Green, two of the city’s antebellum mansions, the Ferris home on Fort Hill Drive and at luminaria-lit graves in the national cemetery.

Vicksburg scenes were shot in April by production director Lenny Rotman of Northern Light Productions, a Boston company that also wrote the script in conjunction with park staff. Rotman will attend the premiere and speak about its production, said VNMP chief operations officer and acting superintendent Rick Martin.

Other scenes in the documentary, which include the siege, the civilian war experience and a re-enactment of the fighting at Millikin’s Bend, were shot near Richmond, Va.

The old film has been running every 30 minutes in the visitor center since the 1970s. In recent years it has often failed to hold viewer interest, said park historian Terry Winschel during filming for the new one.

Winschel has another speaking commitment and will not be able to attend the premiere, Martin said, but he, Rotman and many of the Vicksburg residents involved in its filming will be there. Park staffers are hopeful that incoming Superintendent R. Michael Madell will also have arrived by the film’s first showing. To get a sense of the contrast between old and new, the old film will also be shown.

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Contact Pamela Hitchins at phitchins@vicksburgpost.com