Part Five: Journey of a Black man in advertising...

Part Five

Michael was patient as a filmmaker. He would simply let the story unfold before him and capture it. Not that he ever imposed himself on anyone or any situation. Instead, he always had one eye in the viewfinder while using his other eye to see what else was about to unfold in the scene. He was very intuitive and could ‘feel the moment.’

We spent weeks just getting to know people, hanging out with them and first establishing trust between us. By the time we began filming people were oblivious to the presence of the camera and opened right up. We were the proverbial fly on the wall and cinema verite at its best.

That’s how we were able to create a number of documentary films on such varied and provocative topics as gentrification and the Appalachian community in Dayton; juvenile delinquency -- how first-time offenders often became hardened, lifetime criminals; the mental anguish and pain experienced by mothers from Parents Anonymous, a national organization founded in 1968, now the nation’s oldest child abuse prevention organization. The film, Save This Child of Mine, focused on a group of white, affluent suburban women seeking help and support from one another in confronting their continued abuse of their own children.

We also tackled the love/hate relationship between pimps and their prostitutes in our documentary on Project Cure, one of the first drug rehabilitation programs in the country. Many of the people desperately wanted to free themselves from the shackles of heroin addiction by using methadone, then an alternative treatment offered by Project Cure. We watched as some of them worked hard to turn their lives around so they could stop lying to and stealing from family and friends who still loved them.

Run by Brother Zafr, Project Cure was one of the first drug rehab programs in the country to offer methadone as an alternative to heroin. Brother Zafr was a former addict himself who had spent most of his life in prison for dealing drugs and robbing banks. But he was a brilliant man who earned several degrees and learned several languages in prison where he also became an Orthodox Muslim. He was such a role model, teacher and a real inspiration for so many of the addicts who went through Project Cure.

When we were filming in the East side of Dayton, the primarily poor, white, Appalachian neighborhood that was being gentrified by more affluent professional people who were buying older homes and restoring them. Michael had befriended some of the younger, ‘toughs’ who strolled the neighborhood at night and often found themselves in trouble with the law. One of them called Michael late one night and told him his best friend had just escaped from the Ohio State Juvenile Facility and was hiding out in the attic of his home.

He had been abused in that facility by slightly older and much tougher inmates; and often brutalized by some of the guards themselves. Under the circumstances, Michael went carefully in the night to the house, up into the attic and filmed only the escapee’s eyes as he told his story. A few days thereafter the police found out what Michael had done and came to our offices looking for both the film and Michael. The young escapee was still on the run but we had no idea where he was.

After a couple of years Michael left Dayton and moved to Carbondale, Illinois, where he taught at Southern Illinois University until he recently retired. My documentary film making had a major influence on how I’ve approached advertising throughout my career.

NEXT: The journey continues…Wilberforce and W.B.Doner & Co.

Journey of a Black man in advertising...Part Four

Part Four: 6.08.09

Michael Covell was a professor of film at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, then one of the best film schools in the country. Michael was an underground documentary filmmaker, a wonderful human being and an extraordinary cinematographer. He was truly a renaissance man and passionate about sharing his knowledge of film making with others.

I knew he was the perfect choice for the documentary project but I decided instead to hire, Roy McKay, a young African American filmmaker who had just graduated from Howard University. Roy was a good man, but he had no real practical experience at film making either either, so we couldn't learn from one another. It was truly the blind leading the blind.

We struggled through our first documentary, on women in policing, shot mostly in Washington, DC and Dayton, Ohio. Thereafter, I quickly ended the relationship and moved Roy back to DC where he lived. Luckily Michael Covell was still available and very much interested in working with me. He laughed when he heard the “start-up horror" stories. It was the beginning of an incredible journey for both of us. NEXT: THE JOURNEY CONTINUES: PART FIVE