Guggenheim Productions, Inc. ®


A REPRESENTATIVE SELECTION OF FILMS •
GUGGENHEIM PRODUCTIONS INC


"I think you're trying to make films, if you can, that tell stories that transcend time..."

"There is some mystery in the spontaneous human voice that's hard for me to define,
but when I hear it, I know it. The tone of the voice carries a different kind of information
information about the human experience...unbelievable insights about
the human condition. You can't write it."

--
Charles Guggenheim

BERGA: SOLDIERS oF ANOTHER WAR

AFI Silver Docs - Tribute Screening 2003
CINE - Golden Eagle Award 2003

Columbus International Film and Video Festival - Best of Festival 2003
Full Frame Documentary Film Festival - Tribute Screening 2003
IDA - Pare Lorentz Award 2003
Academy Award Short List - Documentary Feature 2003


Charles Guggenheim dedicated the last six months of his life to finishing this film. This is a story about his fellow American infantrymen, who were captured during the Battle of the Bulge, then sent to a Nazi slave labor camp where many of them died. Berga: Soldiers of Another War is a documentary about American Prisoners of War caught in the tragedy of the Holocaust. Until now, their story has remained untold, lost in the trauma of the Second World War.

National Broadcast Premiere on PBS
May 28, 2003 at 8:00 pm (check your local listings for future air dates)•

Project Reviews

Television Reviews

2002 • 85 min • Black & White • 35mm/Video



DUPONT 200TH ANNIVERSARY

This biographical film about the history of the duPonts, their coming to America, and their personal and business successes over the last two hundred years, was commissioned for the family's 200th anniversary on June 24th, 2000.

2000 • 35 min • Color • Video


THE FIRST FREEDOM

Columbus International Film and Video Festival - Bronze Plaque Award
2000
Worldfest Houston International Film Festival - Bronze Award 2001

The First Freedom is a documentary about the First Amendment. Told through the eyes of newspeople and newsmakers as witnesses to some of the twentieth century's most historically critical events, it illustrates the role played by a free press in a free society.

1999 • 32 min • Color • Video

 

 

 

 


THE ART oF NORTON SIMON

Columbus International Film and Video Festival - Chris Award 2000


This is the story of the brilliant, mystical, and unpredictable contrarian who built an industrial empire from an abandoned factory and then put it aside to assemble the greatest art collection west of Chicago.

1999 • 32 min • Color • 35 mm

 



WITNESSES

Witnesses is the story of six individuals whose lives were touched by their Woodley House experience. It was shown at the fortieth anniversary benefit honoring the work of Woodley House, which was founded in 1958 to provide a lifeline, a bridge, and hope for thousands of men and women caught in the despair of psychological problems.

1999 • 13 min • Color • Video


LIFE IN THE SHADOWS

Life In The Shadows focuses on President John F. Kennedy's pioneering effort to improve the lives of persons with mental retardation. His advocacy culminated in the 1963 signing of the first piece of legislation in our country's history addressing the needs of citizens with mental retardation and underwriting research and programs of action in the area of mental birth defects.

As a result, millions of people emerged from lives of shame and isolation and were given their first opportunity to lead normal and productive lives.

1999 • 10 min • Black & White • Video


A PLACE IN THE LAND

Academy Award Nomination - Documentary Short Subject 1998
CINE - Golden Eagle Award 1999
Earthwatch Institute Film Award - 1999
Worldfest Flagstaff International Film Festival - Gold Award 1998

A Place in the Land is the story of George Perkins Marsh, Frederick Billings and Laurance S. Rockefeller, three seminal figures in the history of the conservation movement in America.

Though they were born generations apart and lived very different lives, the three were connected by a common vision and a common place. Marsh, Billings and Rockefeller occupied the same home and surrounding land in Woodstock, Vermont–a place that instilled in each of them a determination to preserve America's natural resources and to teach their fellow man to live in harmony with nature.

Today, their legacy and the land in Woodstock that inspired them are preserved at the Billings Farm & Museum, a museum of Vermont’s rural past and a working dairy farm, and the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park–the first National Park in America dedicated to teaching the concept of land stewardship.

1998 • 32 min • Color • 35 mm

 


HARRY S. TRUMAN: 1884-1972

Columbus International Film and Video Festival - Bronze Plaque Award 1998


This is the story of the life of Harry S. Truman, who became the thirty-third president of the United States.

Born to a poor family in western Missouri, and never harboring ambitions to hold anything but state office, Truman rose with a reputation for honesty and commitment and–with the unlikely support of a corrupt Kansas City political machine–became a U.S. Senator, and later Vice President and President of the United States.

Occupying the Oval Office for almost eight years after the death of Franklin Roosevelt, he faced and acted upon more critical issues and crises than any president in the twentieth century.

Truman left the presidency with the lowest approval rating of any president in modern times after dealing with the Communist threat, the atomic bomb, McCarthyism, the Korean War, and the firing of General Douglas MacArthur.

1997 • 46 min • Black & White • 35 mm




THE SHADOW oF HATE

Academy Award Nomination - Documentary Short Subject 1995
Worldfest Houston International Film Festival - Silver Award 1995


The Shadow of Hate chronicles the haunting legacy of prejudice in America over the last 300 years, from the persecution of the Quakers in colonial New England to the ethnic tensions that divide our towns and cities today. Historical photos, archival film footage, and the voices of eyewitnesses bring to life events such as the Wounded Knee Massacre, the lynching of Jewish businessman Leo Frank, and the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. By telling the stories of those who have struggled against persecution, "The Shadow of Hate" illuminates the dark corners of American history.

1995 • 38 min • Color • 16 mm

 


D-DAY REMEMBERED

Academy Award Nomination - Documentary Feature 1994
Chicago International Film Festival - Certificate of Merit 1994
CINE - Golden Eagle Award 1994
Columbus International Film and Video Festival - Bronze Plaque Award 1994


D-Day Remembered is the story of the most definable moment of the Allied victory against Nazi Germany in World War II. It tells of the successful invasion by the largest armada in history off the coast of Normandy on June 6, 1944–and the battle that followed. D-Day Remembered is told through the experiences of those who planned, executed and fought on the French beaches on that fateful day more than fifty years ago.

1994 • 52 min • Black & White • 35 mm




CLEAR PICTURES

Based on his memoir by the same name, Clear Pictures chronicles the life and work of Reynolds Price, the distinguished American novelist and professor at Duke University. The film provides a look at the people who shaped him in small town North Carolina where, with the exception of a Rhodes scholarship at Oxford, he has spent his entire life. Black-and-white photos, many of Price's own home movies, and excerpts of his own prose illuminate the emotions of his life's events. The film also touches upon the life threatening illness that left Price a paraplegic, and the spiritual faith that has helped sustain him in the aftermath.

1994 • 57 min • Color • 16 mm




A LIFE: THE STORY OF LADY BIRD JOHNSON

CINE - Golden Eagle Award 1993
Columbus International Film and Video Festival - Bronze Plaque Award 1993


The story of one of America’s most remarkable First Ladies, and her lasting legacy to the nation, is celebrated in this film profiling the life of Lady Bird Johnson. Lady Bird, who filled the role of the nation’s First Lady from 1963 until 1968, continues to make her mark on America. Archival photos from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library, comments by friends, family members and former LBJ administration officials, and an in-depth interview with Lady Bird herself, provide a deeply personal and riveting look at a woman who made numerous and significant contributions to the nation–from the beautification of America’s roads and highways to the initiation of the Head Start program. This film aired on PBS stations across the country on June 18, 1993.



1992 • 57 min • Color • 16 mm

 



A TIME FOR JUSTICE

Academy Award - Documentary Short Subject 1994
Birmingham International Educational Film Festival - Silver Award 1992
Chicago International Film Festival - Gold Plaque Award 1992
CINE - Golden Eagle Award 1992
Educational Press Association of America - Distinguished Achievement Award 1992
Worldfest Houston International Film Festival - Gold Special Jury Award 1992


A Time for Justice captures the struggle and heroism of the Civil Rights Movement through both historic footage and the voices of those who took part in it. It shows firsthand the movement’s most dramatic moments, and the extraordinary courage and sacrifices of its participants. In video, it is one component of an educational kit that is distributed free to junior and senior high schools nationwide.

1992 • 38 min • Black & White • 16 mm

 

 


LBJ: A REMEMBRANCE

CINE - Golden Eagle Award 1991
Intercom - Silver Hugo Award 1991


Twenty-five years after the inauguration of Lyndon Baines Johnson, this film recalls The Great Society through still photographs and the voices of Cabinet members and close friends of America's thirty-sixth President.

1990 • 28 min • Black & White • 16 mm

 

 

 

 


ISLAND OF HOPE, ISLAND OF TEARS

CINE - Golden Eagle Award 1990
Columbus International Film and Video Festival - Chris Award 1990
Earthwatch Institute Film Award - 1991
National Educational Film & Video Festival - Bronze Apple 1991


Island of Hope, Island of Tears is a tribute to the 18 million men, women and children who made the torturous journey from the Old to the New World between 1890 and 1920, in the single largest migration in human history. The film traces the immigrants' departure from the Old World, their journey across the ocean, and their final arrival and processing at Ellis Island, New York.

1989 • 28 min • Black & White • 35 mm


JOURNEY TO AMERICA

Birmingham International Educational Film Festival - Best of Category 1990
CINE - Golden Eagle Award 1990
Intercom - Silver Hugo Award 1990
Worldfest Houston International Film Festival - Gold Award 1990

Produced for the PBS series the "American Experience," this film is an extended version of Island of Hope, Island of Tears. The film chronicles not only the great migration to the New World between 1890 and 1920, but also follows these immigrants' stories after they arrived at Ellis Island and began their new lives in New York, Pennsylvania, Chicago and all across America.

1989 • 52 min • Black & White • 16 mm


THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD

Academy Award - Documentary Short Subject 1989
Chicago International Film Festival - Silver Hugo Award 1989
CINE - Golden Eagle Award 1989
Columbus International Film and Video Festival - Bronze Plaque Award 1989
National Educational Film and Video Festival - Gold Apple Award 1990


The Johnstown Flood is the story of one of the most devastating disasters in American history. The film chronicles the events leading up to and following the moment on May 31, 1889 when a private dam burst, unleashing 200 million tons of water into the city of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. An extended version of The Johnstown Flood was aired on the PBS series the "American Experience," using never before seen images of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club.

1989 • 26 min • Black & White • 35 mm

 

 

 


THE MAKING OF LIBERTY

Birmingham International Educational Film Festival - Best of Category 1987
CINE - Golden Eagle Award 1987
Chicago International Film Festival - Silver Plaque Award 1987
Columbus International Film and Video Festival - Best of Festival 1987
Festival Internazionale del Cinema di Salerno - Coppa Prefetto di Salerno 1987
Worldfest Houston International Film Festival - Gold Special Jury Award 1987
Intercom - Silver Hugo Award 1987


In this film essay about the Statue of Liberty, the great figure's birth, building and rebuilding are seen through the eyes of artisans and laborers whose tasks are separated by a hundred years, but whose vision transcends time.

1986 • 58 min • Color • 16 mm

 

 

 

 

 


AMERICA BY DESIGN

Chicago International Film Festival - Gold Plaque Award 1987


America By Design is a five-part series exploring the origins and evolution of American architecture and design.

"The House," examines the social and economic forces that have influenced how we shelter the American family; "The Workplace" views our history from the colonial farm to River Rouge and skyscrapers; in "The Street," we visit alleys and superhighways, rivers, canals, and railroads, along with the City Beautiful movement; "Public Places and Monuments" reveals the history of the public realm, public art and monuments, including the Olmstead preservation movement; and "The Shape of the Land" examines the redesigning of the American continent from farming to strip mining, including changes arising from the work of the TVA, the development of airports, and the establishment of National Parks.



YORKTOWN

CINE - Golden Eagle Award 1984
Columbus International Film and Video Festival - Bronze Plaque Award 1983
International Fine Arts Center of the Southwest - Best Documentary
Worldfest Houston International Film Festival - Gold Award 1984


This film commemorates the last decisive battle of the Revolutionary War at Yorktown, Virginia, in October 1781, and the events that led up to it. Filmed in the United States, Great Britain and France, it incorporates illustrations, paintings and live action. The battle scenes were realized through the assemblage of over one thousand re-created Revolutionary troops on the restored Yorktown battlefield.

1983 • 29 min • Color • 16 mm


HIGH SCHOOLS

Academy Award Nomination - Documentary Feature 1984
California Teachers Association John Swett Award - 1983
Columbus International Film and Video Festival - Bronze Plaque Award 1984

International Film and Television Festival of New York - Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Award 1984
International Fine Arts Center of the Southwest - Best Documentary
Worldfest
Houston International Film Festival - Silver Award 1984
San Francisco International Film Festival - Best of Category 1984


Based on Dr. Ernest L. Boyer’s book, High School, and shot on location in seven American high schools, this film examines the status of public high schools in America in the 1980s.

1983 • 28 min • Color • 16 mm


THE KLAN: A LEGACY OF HATE IN AMERICA

Academy Award Nomination - Documentary Short Subject 1982
American Film Festival - Blue Ribbon Award 1983
CINE - Golden Eagle Award 1982
Columbus International Film and Video Festival - Chris Award 1982
Worldfest Houston International Film Festival - Gold Award 1984
San Francisco International Film Festival - Bronze Award 1983

The Klan: A Legacy of Hate in America traces the Ku Klux Klan from its origins after the Civil War as an anti-Reconstruction movement, to its status today as a paramilitary force. Original photography blended with archival film and still photographs dramatize the story of the Klan’s hundred-year preoccupation with the harassment and persecution of those it considers “un-Christian and un-American.”

1982 • 28 min • Color • 16 mm


JOHN F. KENNEDY: 1917-1963

CINE - Golden Eagle Award 1981

Produced for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, the film commemorates the life of the late President.

1979 • 33 min • Black & White • 35 mm

 

 

 


A PLACE TO BE

CINE - Golden Eagle Award 1980
Columbus International Film and Video Festival - Bronze Plaque Award 1981
Sophia-Bulgaria Festival of Architecture and Films - Gold Medal 1981


A Place to Be documents the design and construction of the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and the realization of the monumental art commissioned to occupy the building's public spaces.

1979 • 55 min • Color • 16 mm


HR 6161: AN ACT OF CONGRESS

San Francisco International Film Festival - Best in Category 1979


This is the story of how a law is enacted by the United States Congress–in this instance, HR 6161, a bill to amend the Clean Air Act. The film follows the journey of one piece of legislation from conception, through committee amendment, and final passage.

1979 • 58 min • Color • 16 mm


THE EYE OF JEFFERSON

CINE - Golden Eagle Award 1977
Chicago International Film Festival - Silver Plaque Award 1977
Columbus International Film and Video Festival - Bronze Plaque Award 1977
National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences D.C. Chapter - Emmy 1977-78


The Eye of Jefferson reveals the story of Thomas Jefferson’s contribution to American art, architecture and planning through his observations as a student, designer, and patron of the arts. The film highlights Jefferson’s career abroad from 1785 to 1789 as Minister to France, where he was "smitten” by European art and architecture. This experience profoundly influenced both Jefferson's perception of America's place in the visual art world, and the choices he made during the process of designing Monticello and the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia.

1977 • 28 min • Color • 16 mm


BECKY: THE VALUE OF LIFE

CINE - Golden Eagle Award 1981
Columbus International Film and Video Festival - Chris Award 1981
National Council on Family Relations - Family Life Film Award 1981

In personal terms, this film explores the legal, medical and ethical issues facing the parents of Becky, a mentally disabled child, when they wish to donate her organs to save another child dying of kidney failure.

1977 • 24 min • Color • 16 mm


FROM KING TO CONGRESS

CINE - Golden Eagle Award 1975
National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences D.C. Chapter - Emmy Award 1975
Worldfest Virgin Islands International Film Festival - Gold Medal 1975


From King to Congress is the story of the first African American from the deep South to be elected to the United States Congress since Reconstruction. Focusing on Andrew Young's successful campaign for a Congressional seat from his home 5th district in Atlanta, the film's underlying theme emphasizes the dramatic change in American politics toward interracial cooperation and understanding.

1974 • 52 min • Color • 16 mm


WHO SHOULD SURVIVE?

CINE - Golden Eagle Award 1972
Columbus International Film and Video Festival - Chris Award 1972
San Francisco International Film Festival - Best in Category 1972
Worldfest Atlanta International Film Festival - Gold Medal - 1972

This film introduces a child born with a genetic disorder and an intestinal abnormality. Although modern medicine can easily correct these fatal conditions, the parents, who do not want their child, refuse to give doctors their permission for surgery.

1971 • 10 min • Color • 16 mm


ROBERT KENNEDY REMEMBERED

Academy Award - Short Subject Live Action 1968
American Film Festival - Blue Ribbon Award 1969
CINE - Golden Eagle Award 1968
National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences D.C. Chapter - Emmy Award 1968


Shown on all television networks in 1968 and during the Chicago Democratic National Convention simultaneously, this moving film tribute to a man who had hope to lead our country created a historic moment when it brought the proceedings to a standstill, and the crowd, in tears, to its feet. This film biography evokes the spirit, quality and commitment Robert Kennedy brought to his life and work.





1968 • 29 min • Black & White • 16 mm


TIME OF THE WEST

American Film Festival - Blue Ribbon Award 1966

San Francisco International Film Festival - Honorable Mention

Time of the West is a tribute to the spirit that pioneered and won the West. The trappers, traders, sod busters, cattlemen, farmers, and homesteaders are recalled through a study of the land they claimed and on which they lived–traveling, mining, sowing, hunting–and died.

1966 • 34 min • Color • 35 mm


MONUMENT TO THE DREAM

Academy Award Nomination - Documentary Short Subject 1967
American Film Festival - Blue Ribbon Award 1968
CINE - Golden Eagle Award 1968
Venice Film Festival - XI Gold Mercury Award 1968


Presenting the story of the building of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Arch in St. Louis, Missouri, Monument to the Dream follows the adventure of the arch’s construction by depicting the engineering achievement as a metaphor for the struggle to win the West.

1964 • 28 min • Color • 35 mm



NINE FROM LITTLE ROCK

Academy Award - Documentary Short Subject 1964
San Francisco International Film Festival - Golden Gate Award 1964


This film profiles the lives of the nine African American students who integrated Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas, during the fall of 1957. The events that transpired that year, including the students' escort by armed troops, are seen through the eyes of Jefferson Thomas. Seven years after their historic achievement, Thomas and his fellow students also relate their impressions of both past and present discrimination, and their hopes for the future.

1964 • 21 min • Black & White • 35 mm


CHILDREN WITHOUT

Academy Award Nomination - Documentary Short Subject 1964
La Biennale di Venezia XXVI Mostra Internazionale D'Arte Cinematografica - XVI Mostra Internazionale del Film Documentario Premio 1965
CINE - Golden Eagle Award 1965
Columbus International Film and Video Festival - Chris Award 1965
International Television and Film Festival of New York - Bronze Award 1965

This docudrama chronicles the life of a young girl and her brother who come from the Detroit “projects.” The film examines how teachers and adminstrators at the Franklin Elementary School work with the children and their family to break the cycle of poverty.

1964 • 50 min • Black & White • 16 mm


THE FISHERMAN AND HIS SOUL

17th International Edinburgh Film Festival - Diploma of Merit 1963
International Film Festival of Inida - Honorable Mention 1965
San Francisco International Film Festival - Honorable Mention 1963
U.S. Information Agency - Certificate of Merit 1963


Based on the short story by Oscar Wilde about the adventures of a fisherman who falls in love with a mermaid and gives up his soul, this film was shot along the coast of Brazil, in a fishing village near Recife. With an American and Brazilian cast, The Fisherman and His Soul was produced in both English and Portuguese. Guggenheim said of the film: "It was totally exhausting...but it had a tremendous influence on my work. It made me a better storyteller."

1961 • 90 min • Color • 35 mm


THE GREAT ST. LOUIS BANK ROBBERY

American Film Festival - Blue Ribbon Award 1959

The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery is a psychological drama that recounts the planning and thoroughly botched execution of a bank robbery. Three hardened criminals and a young Turk, played by Steve McQueen, are brought together to mastermind the perfect heist. Though the participants mistrust each other, especially outsider McQueen, they bond reluctantly as the fateful day nears. Once inside the bank, things start to go wrong. Pent up frustrations and petty jealousies resurface. When the heat comes down, both literally and figuratively, the would be robbers revert to the most basic of human instincts --"every man for himself."

This story is based on a true incident, with members of the St. Louis Police Department playing the same parts they did in the actual incident.

1959 • 88 min • Black & White • 35 mm


A CITY DECIDES

Academy Award Nomination - Documentary Short Subject 1956
American Film Festival - Silver Reel Award 1957

A City Decides chronicles the events that led to the integration of the St. Louis public schools in 1954.

1956 • 28 min • Black & White • 16 mm