The Storytellers
Churchill Roberts and Sandra Dickson depict the world through film and teach others how to do the same
Published: Thursday, June 4, 2009 at 8:46 p.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, June 4, 2009 at 8:46 p.m.
The lights at the Lincoln Center were set to a warm glow, with a single spot on the stage illuminated. Henry Kissinger, dressed in a black suit and red tie, delivered his opening comments and then extended a hand to invite a dozen or so concentration camp survivors to the stage. For many of the gray-haired group, the May 2007 gathering was their first reunion since they were liberated in 1945 from the Ahlem Concentration Camp outside of Hanover, Germany.
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Churchill Roberts and Sandra Dickson, co-directors of the Documentary Institute at the University of Florida, have nearly completed production of their latest project, "The Last Flight of Petr Ginz."
Photo By Aaron Daye/Staff Photographer; IlustratioFacts
EXTRODINARY DOCUMENTARIES
Sandra Dickson and Churchill Roberts have collaborated on documentaries since 1986, including the following:
"Giving Up the Canal": This documentary, narrated by Edwin Newman and aired nationally on PBS in June 1990, explores the process by which the U.S. gradually became the tenant and Panama the landlord of the Panama Canal.
"Campaign for Cuba": This 1992 documentary narrated by NPR commentator Daniel Schorr, investigates how the Cuban-American National Foundation, a Cuban exile group, and its former leader, Jorge Mas Canosa, influenced U.S. policy toward Cuba in the 1980s and early '90s.
"Last Days of the Revolution": An examination of the reasons behind the economic crisis Cuba suffered in the early 1990s and the subsequent mass exodus of Cubans to the United States. The documentary is narrated by Jose de Cordoba of The Wall Street Journal, and aired nationally on PBS in November 1994 and on Swedish and Spanish television stations in 1995.
"Deciding Who Dies": This film, narrated by former Washington Post reporter Pete Earley and aired nationally on PBS in 1997, examines the arbitrary nature of the death penalty, including how poverty, race and quality of defense influence the judicial process.
"Freedom Never Dies: The Legacy of Harry T. Moore": This award-winning film, narrated by Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, explores the life and times of this teacher and enigmatic leader of the civil rights movement.
"Negroes With Guns: Rob Williams and Black Power": Taken from the title of Robert Williams' 1962 manifesto, this film tells the wrenching story of the now-forgotten civil rights activist who dared to challenge not only the Klan-dominated establishment of his small North Carolina town but also the non-violence-advocating leadership of the mainstream civil rights movement.
The film won three awards, including Best Feature Documentary at the UrbanWorld Film Festival in 2004.
"Angel of Ahlem": The story of a gentile from Iowa and a small group of Jews who find meaning, purpose and a powerful friendship through some old black-and-white photos.
"The Last Flight of Petr Ginz": (in production) By 14, Petr Ginz had written five novels and penned a diary about the Nazi occupation of Prague. By 16, he had produced 120 drawings and paintings, edited an underground magazine in the Theresienstadt Ghetto, written numerous short stories and had walked to the gas chamber at Auschwitz.
Petr's story was virtually unknown until the 2003 Columbia space shuttle tragedy. Israeli astronaut, Ilan Ramon, carried with him into space Petr's drawing, Moon Landscape. The publicity surrounding the flight and its explosion led to the discovery of Petr's diary and additional artwork and short stories in a Prague attic.
As the survivors made their way down the aisle, camera flashes lighting their way, Kissinger — who is usually the focal point of the flashing cameras — wanted his picture taken with them.
"It was like the flashbulbs of a rock star because everyone wanted a photo of these survivors," says Churchill Roberts, co-director of the award-winning documentary "Angel of Ahlem." The film recounts the story of the concentration camp survivors, a U.S. soldier who stumbled upon them at the end of World War II, and how the photos the GI took that day led to a lasting friendship 40 years later. Roberts, who is also co-director of the University of Florida's Documentary Institute, had arranged a private screening of the film for the Ahlem survivors.
For Roberts, whose career as a documentarian began in Memphis just after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., watching this photo come into frame was more than memorable.
"[This was] the best moment in my professional career," he says.
For nearly two decades, Roberts and Sandra Dickson have traveled around the world to pursue their joint projects for the Documentary Institute. They've been held under house arrest by the Cuban government, entered the homes of women widowed by the civil rights movement and traveled countless hours to more than three continents for their most recent project, "The Last Flight of Petr Ginz."
"I've had the whole world opened to me by making films. I can't imagine a job that's better," says Dickson, who became interested in documentaries in her mid-20s. "I get to meet amazing people all over the world, and I'm constantly in a classroom, but in a field classroom."
Dickson and Roberts came to UF in 1998, six years after the Documentary Institute was formed at the University of West Florida. The duo, along with associate directors Cynthia Hill and Cara Pilson, had received funding from a special appropriation arranged by former Florida House Rep. T.K. Wetherell. "I find that rather ironic: Here I am at the University of Florida and the person who sort of got us started in our documentary program is the president of FSU," Roberts says.
The move south came after the team was approached by former UF President John Lombardi and former College of Journalism and Communications Dean Terry Hynes."When it [the Documentary Institute] got here it got bigger, it got stronger in my opinion, and certainly the ability to offer a graduate program was a great plus," Dickson says. "It's been great to be here and have UF students in the program." "He [John Lombardi] was interested in greater national visibility for the University of Florida. Dean Hynes was interested in creating a first-rate graduate program in documentary film-making," Roberts says.
Since then, the team has produced five documentaries aired nationally on PBS that have taken them across eight countries and three continents. They've attracted some 10 students a year from undergraduate programs across the country. Last year, the filmmaking magazine The Independent named the Institute one of the top 10 programs in the nation for documentary filmmakers.
"I just find it enormously rewarding working with the students. I'm just so proud of our program. We are providing a really first-rate education," Roberts says. "We always tell students, 'Gosh, I wish there had been a program like this when I was around.'"
Roberts' interest in documentary film-making was sparked by professor David Yellin at the University of Memphis. "It was the fact that he was so committed to social and political issues, and saw film as a way of expressing those feelings," Roberts says. "He really turned me on to documentary, its potential."
Those feelings began to bubble in Roberts in 1968, when typical classroom discussions had been suspended for a more pressing issue: the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The sanitation workers' strike that King had been in town to support would become the subject of Roberts' first film, "Keep Your Trash," though he didn't begin working on it until he pursued a master's degree at the University of Iowa a few years later.
Roberts' first film with Dickson, "Religion and Revolution in Nicaragua," was born in 1986, during their time teaching in the communications department at UWF.
"It wasn't a very good film. We didn't spend enough time in Nicaragua," says Roberts. The team spent a week in the country; today, they spend two to three years on a project. "But we learned a lot. There was a lot we had to learn about working under those conditions." Those conditions include traversing an unfamiliar country in the middle of a civil war and using amateur equipment. After receiving the appropriation money from the state, the team was able to purchase what it needed to pitch films to big shots, such as PBS.
The filmmakers got that opportunity with their next film, which focused on the Panama Canal. After wrapping the documentary, everyone in the group crossed their fingers, kissed the film for good luck and shipped it off. PBS screened it on Dec. 20, 1989, the day the U.S. invaded Panama.
"I thought, 'Our careers are over. That's it. Never again,'" says Roberts.
Then came the real surprise.
"The people at PBS thought, 'As a consequence of that invasion, Panama is in the news,'" Roberts says. "PBS gave us the funds to go back to Panama and update our film."
"Giving Up the Canal" was the team's first nationally aired film.
Roberts' and Dickson's next venture took them 90 miles south of Key West.
Though the distance was shorter than Nicaragua, the road to Cuba was perhaps their most difficult trip. In planning their 1991 travels, Roberts was amazed that he was able to secure visas for himself and Dickson, a film crew and a few students. Once inside the country, however, they faced real trouble: The Cuban government thought the documentary was a cover.
"They thought we had lied to them about why we were coming there. So they held us under house arrest; they kept threatening they were going to take our tapes," Roberts says. "We negotiated for about 24 hours, non-stop, and in the end, they let us go."
The success of"Campaign for Cuba," which generated a review and editorial in the New York Times, would lead to the creation of the Documentary Institute in 1992.
"I always had in mind that I didn't want to make films that would be shown just locally. You wanted your films to have a greater impact," Roberts says. "Over the years ... we all shared that common interest of film as a means of basically changing the world."
Dickson says its the fine balance between summer internships in big cities and work in a receptive community that makes well-rounded students.
"There's a great appreciation, on the part of the community — the general community as well as the university community — for documentaries,"Dickson says.
Being in the middle of a research university has also been of great value to Dickson and her team's films.
"The university is a great source for experts in just about every area you can possibly imagine," she says.
Over the years, the group's films have moved from current events pieces to historical documentaries. Roberts says this switch is a result of having to be a teacher and a documentarian. He also sees the expert resources at UF as a strength when it comes to research-based films; many of their documentaries have featured historians from UF.
Financial support is a challenge. While state budget woes have led to downsizing around campus, the Documentary Institute saw its funding completely disappear last year.
Fortunately, revenues from the Foundation endowment and proceeds from the sale of film, along with gifts, have enabled the institute to stay afloat temporarily," says Roberts, adding that additional funding has been received from the Governor's Office of Film and Entertainment. But this year, as UF faces deeper budget cuts, the Documentary Institute faces an even more uncertain future.
Perhaps fitting for a group with its share of financial challenges, the team has found at least one constant in their films: the underdog story.
"All of us know what it's like to be an underdog," Dickson says. "I think it's easy to develop a rooting interest for the smallest guy on the football team, or for the shortest woman on the basketball team."
In each of their documentaries, Dickson and Roberts also find relationships and bonds they never expected.
"When I first started I didn't have any idea how important the subjects of the film would become in my life," Dickson says. "In some instances, no question, they change my life, they change my point of view, they change my perspective on the world. And for that, I'm really grateful." "When we finish a film, we never just completely move on. We've been in touch with the families of everybody we've done films about. We create a lasting relationship," Roberts says.
The lights at the Lincoln Center were set to a warm glow, with a single spot on the stage illuminated. Henry Kissinger, dressed in a black suit and red tie, delivered his opening comments and then extended a hand to invite a dozen or so concentration camp survivors to the stage. For many of the gray-haired group, the May 2007 gathering was their first reunion since they were liberated in 1945 from the Ahlem Concentration Camp outside of Hanover, Germany.
As the survivors made their way down the aisle, camera flashes lighting their way, Kissinger — who is usually the focal point of the flashing cameras — wanted his picture taken with them.
"It was like the flashbulbs of a rock star because everyone wanted a photo of these survivors," says Churchill Roberts, co-director of the award-winning documentary "Angel of Ahlem." The film recounts the story of the concentration camp survivors, a U.S. soldier who stumbled upon them at the end of World War II, and how the photos the GI took that day led to a lasting friendship 40 years later. Roberts, who is also co-director of the University of Florida's Documentary Institute, had arranged a private screening of the film for the Ahlem survivors.
For Roberts, whose career as a documentarian began in Memphis just after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., watching this photo come into frame was more than memorable.
"[This was] the best moment in my professional career," he says.
For nearly two decades, Roberts and Sandra Dickson have traveled around the world to pursue their joint projects for the Documentary Institute. They've been held under house arrest by the Cuban government, entered the homes of women widowed by the civil rights movement and traveled countless hours to more than three continents for their most recent project, "The Last Flight of Petr Ginz."
"I've had the whole world opened to me by making films. I can't imagine a job that's better," says Dickson, who became interested in documentaries in her mid-20s. "I get to meet amazing people all over the world, and I'm constantly in a classroom, but in a field classroom."
Dickson and Roberts came to UF in 1998, six years after the Documentary Institute was formed at the University of West Florida. The duo, along with associate directors Cynthia Hill and Cara Pilson, had received funding from a special appropriation arranged by former Florida House Rep. T.K. Wetherell. "I find that rather ironic: Here I am at the University of Florida and the person who sort of got us started in our documentary program is the president of FSU," Roberts says.
The move south came after the team was approached by former UF President John Lombardi and former College of Journalism and Communications Dean Terry Hynes."When it [the Documentary Institute] got here it got bigger, it got stronger in my opinion, and certainly the ability to offer a graduate program was a great plus," Dickson says. "It's been great to be here and have UF students in the program." "He [John Lombardi] was interested in greater national visibility for the University of Florida. Dean Hynes was interested in creating a first-rate graduate program in documentary film-making," Roberts says.
Since then, the team has produced five documentaries aired nationally on PBS that have taken them across eight countries and three continents. They've attracted some 10 students a year from undergraduate programs across the country. Last year, the filmmaking magazine The Independent named the Institute one of the top 10 programs in the nation for documentary filmmakers.
"I just find it enormously rewarding working with the students. I'm just so proud of our program. We are providing a really first-rate education," Roberts says. "We always tell students, 'Gosh, I wish there had been a program like this when I was around.'"
Roberts' interest in documentary film-making was sparked by professor David Yellin at the University of Memphis. "It was the fact that he was so committed to social and political issues, and saw film as a way of expressing those feelings," Roberts says. "He really turned me on to documentary, its potential."
Those feelings began to bubble in Roberts in 1968, when typical classroom discussions had been suspended for a more pressing issue: the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The sanitation workers' strike that King had been in town to support would become the subject of Roberts' first film, "Keep Your Trash," though he didn't begin working on it until he pursued a master's degree at the University of Iowa a few years later.
Roberts' first film with Dickson, "Religion and Revolution in Nicaragua," was born in 1986, during their time teaching in the communications department at UWF.
"It wasn't a very good film. We didn't spend enough time in Nicaragua," says Roberts. The team spent a week in the country; today, they spend two to three years on a project. "But we learned a lot. There was a lot we had to learn about working under those conditions." Those conditions include traversing an unfamiliar country in the middle of a civil war and using amateur equipment. After receiving the appropriation money from the state, the team was able to purchase what it needed to pitch films to big shots, such as PBS.
The filmmakers got that opportunity with their next film, which focused on the Panama Canal. After wrapping the documentary, everyone in the group crossed their fingers, kissed the film for good luck and shipped it off. PBS screened it on Dec. 20, 1989, the day the U.S. invaded Panama.
"I thought, 'Our careers are over. That's it. Never again,'" says Roberts.
Then came the real surprise.
"The people at PBS thought, 'As a consequence of that invasion, Panama is in the news,'" Roberts says. "PBS gave us the funds to go back to Panama and update our film."
"Giving Up the Canal" was the team's first nationally aired film.
Roberts' and Dickson's next venture took them 90 miles south of Key West.
Though the distance was shorter than Nicaragua, the road to Cuba was perhaps their most difficult trip. In planning their 1991 travels, Roberts was amazed that he was able to secure visas for himself and Dickson, a film crew and a few students. Once inside the country, however, they faced real trouble: The Cuban government thought the documentary was a cover.
"They thought we had lied to them about why we were coming there. So they held us under house arrest; they kept threatening they were going to take our tapes," Roberts says. "We negotiated for about 24 hours, non-stop, and in the end, they let us go."
The success of"Campaign for Cuba," which generated a review and editorial in the New York Times, would lead to the creation of the Documentary Institute in 1992.
"I always had in mind that I didn't want to make films that would be shown just locally. You wanted your films to have a greater impact," Roberts says. "Over the years ... we all shared that common interest of film as a means of basically changing the world."
Dickson says its the fine balance between summer internships in big cities and work in a receptive community that makes well-rounded students.
"There's a great appreciation, on the part of the community — the general community as well as the university community — for documentaries,"Dickson says.
Being in the middle of a research university has also been of great value to Dickson and her team's films.
"The university is a great source for experts in just about every area you can possibly imagine," she says.
Over the years, the group's films have moved from current events pieces to historical documentaries. Roberts says this switch is a result of having to be a teacher and a documentarian. He also sees the expert resources at UF as a strength when it comes to research-based films; many of their documentaries have featured historians from UF.
Financial support is a challenge. While state budget woes have led to downsizing around campus, the Documentary Institute saw its funding completely disappear last year.
Fortunately, revenues from the Foundation endowment and proceeds from the sale of film, along with gifts, have enabled the institute to stay afloat temporarily," says Roberts, adding that additional funding has been received from the Governor's Office of Film and Entertainment. But this year, as UF faces deeper budget cuts, the Documentary Institute faces an even more uncertain future.
Perhaps fitting for a group with its share of financial challenges, the team has found at least one constant in their films: the underdog story.
"All of us know what it's like to be an underdog," Dickson says. "I think it's easy to develop a rooting interest for the smallest guy on the football team, or for the shortest woman on the basketball team."
In each of their documentaries, Dickson and Roberts also find relationships and bonds they never expected.
"When I first started I didn't have any idea how important the subjects of the film would become in my life," Dickson says. "In some instances, no question, they change my life, they change my point of view, they change my perspective on the world. And for that, I'm really grateful." "When we finish a film, we never just completely move on. We've been in touch with the families of everybody we've done films about. We create a lasting relationship," Roberts says.
The lights at the Lincoln Center were set to a warm glow, with a single spot on the stage illuminated. Henry Kissinger, dressed in a black suit and red tie, delivered his opening comments and then extended a hand to invite a dozen or so concentration camp survivors to the stage. For many of the gray-haired group, the May 2007 gathering was their first reunion since they were liberated in 1945 from the Ahlem Concentration Camp outside of Hanover, Germany.
As the survivors made their way down the aisle, camera flashes lighting their way, Kissinger — who is usually the focal point of the flashing cameras — wanted his picture taken with them.
"It was like the flashbulbs of a rock star because everyone wanted a photo of these survivors," says Churchill Roberts, co-director of the award-winning documentary "Angel of Ahlem." The film recounts the story of the concentration camp survivors, a U.S. soldier who stumbled upon them at the end of World War II, and how the photos the GI took that day led to a lasting friendship 40 years later. Roberts, who is also co-director of the University of Florida's Documentary Institute, had arranged a private screening of the film for the Ahlem survivors.
For Roberts, whose career as a documentarian began in Memphis just after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., watching this photo come into frame was more than memorable.
"[This was] the best moment in my professional career," he says.
For nearly two decades, Roberts and Sandra Dickson have traveled around the world to pursue their joint projects for the Documentary Institute. They've been held under house arrest by the Cuban government, entered the homes of women widowed by the civil rights movement and traveled countless hours to more than three continents for their most recent project, "The Last Flight of Petr Ginz."
"I've had the whole world opened to me by making films. I can't imagine a job that's better," says Dickson, who became interested in documentaries in her mid-20s. "I get to meet amazing people all over the world, and I'm constantly in a classroom, but in a field classroom."
Dickson and Roberts came to UF in 1998, six years after the Documentary Institute was formed at the University of West Florida. The duo, along with associate directors Cynthia Hill and Cara Pilson, had received funding from a special appropriation arranged by former Florida House Rep. T.K. Wetherell. "I find that rather ironic: Here I am at the University of Florida and the person who sort of got us started in our documentary program is the president of FSU," Roberts says.
The move south came after the team was approached by former UF President John Lombardi and former College of Journalism and Communications Dean Terry Hynes."When it [the Documentary Institute] got here it got bigger, it got stronger in my opinion, and certainly the ability to offer a graduate program was a great plus," Dickson says. "It's been great to be here and have UF students in the program." "He [John Lombardi] was interested in greater national visibility for the University of Florida. Dean Hynes was interested in creating a first-rate graduate program in documentary film-making," Roberts says.
Since then, the team has produced five documentaries aired nationally on PBS that have taken them across eight countries and three continents. They've attracted some 10 students a year from undergraduate programs across the country. Last year, the filmmaking magazine The Independent named the Institute one of the top 10 programs in the nation for documentary filmmakers.
"I just find it enormously rewarding working with the students. I'm just so proud of our program. We are providing a really first-rate education," Roberts says. "We always tell students, 'Gosh, I wish there had been a program like this when I was around.'"
Roberts' interest in documentary film-making was sparked by professor David Yellin at the University of Memphis. "It was the fact that he was so committed to social and political issues, and saw film as a way of expressing those feelings," Roberts says. "He really turned me on to documentary, its potential."
Those feelings began to bubble in Roberts in 1968, when typical classroom discussions had been suspended for a more pressing issue: the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The sanitation workers' strike that King had been in town to support would become the subject of Roberts' first film, "Keep Your Trash," though he didn't begin working on it until he pursued a master's degree at the University of Iowa a few years later.
Roberts' first film with Dickson, "Religion and Revolution in Nicaragua," was born in 1986, during their time teaching in the communications department at UWF.
"It wasn't a very good film. We didn't spend enough time in Nicaragua," says Roberts. The team spent a week in the country; today, they spend two to three years on a project. "But we learned a lot. There was a lot we had to learn about working under those conditions." Those conditions include traversing an unfamiliar country in the middle of a civil war and using amateur equipment. After receiving the appropriation money from the state, the team was able to purchase what it needed to pitch films to big shots, such as PBS.
The filmmakers got that opportunity with their next film, which focused on the Panama Canal. After wrapping the documentary, everyone in the group crossed their fingers, kissed the film for good luck and shipped it off. PBS screened it on Dec. 20, 1989, the day the U.S. invaded Panama.
"I thought, 'Our careers are over. That's it. Never again,'" says Roberts.
Then came the real surprise.
"The people at PBS thought, 'As a consequence of that invasion, Panama is in the news,'" Roberts says. "PBS gave us the funds to go back to Panama and update our film."
"Giving Up the Canal" was the team's first nationally aired film.
Roberts' and Dickson's next venture took them 90 miles south of Key West.
Though the distance was shorter than Nicaragua, the road to Cuba was perhaps their most difficult trip. In planning their 1991 travels, Roberts was amazed that he was able to secure visas for himself and Dickson, a film crew and a few students. Once inside the country, however, they faced real trouble: The Cuban government thought the documentary was a cover.
"They thought we had lied to them about why we were coming there. So they held us under house arrest; they kept threatening they were going to take our tapes," Roberts says. "We negotiated for about 24 hours, non-stop, and in the end, they let us go."
The success of"Campaign for Cuba," which generated a review and editorial in the New York Times, would lead to the creation of the Documentary Institute in 1992.
"I always had in mind that I didn't want to make films that would be shown just locally. You wanted your films to have a greater impact," Roberts says. "Over the years ... we all shared that common interest of film as a means of basically changing the world."
Dickson says its the fine balance between summer internships in big cities and work in a receptive community that makes well-rounded students.
"There's a great appreciation, on the part of the community — the general community as well as the university community — for documentaries,"Dickson says.
Being in the middle of a research university has also been of great value to Dickson and her team's films.
"The university is a great source for experts in just about every area you can possibly imagine," she says.
Over the years, the group's films have moved from current events pieces to historical documentaries. Roberts says this switch is a result of having to be a teacher and a documentarian. He also sees the expert resources at UF as a strength when it comes to research-based films; many of their documentaries have featured historians from UF.
Financial support is a challenge. While state budget woes have led to downsizing around campus, the Documentary Institute saw its funding completely disappear last year.
Fortunately, revenues from the Foundation endowment and proceeds from the sale of film, along with gifts, have enabled the institute to stay afloat temporarily," says Roberts, adding that additional funding has been received from the Governor's Office of Film and Entertainment. But this year, as UF faces deeper budget cuts, the Documentary Institute faces an even more uncertain future.
Perhaps fitting for a group with its share of financial challenges, the team has found at least one constant in their films: the underdog story.
"All of us know what it's like to be an underdog," Dickson says. "I think it's easy to develop a rooting interest for the smallest guy on the football team, or for the shortest woman on the basketball team."
In each of their documentaries, Dickson and Roberts also find relationships and bonds they never expected.
"When I first started I didn't have any idea how important the subjects of the film would become in my life," Dickson says. "In some instances, no question, they change my life, they change my point of view, they change my perspective on the world. And for that, I'm really grateful." "When we finish a film, we never just completely move on. We've been in touch with the families of everybody we've done films about. We create a lasting relationship," Roberts says.
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