The City of Corinne

This week I began research for a series of videos that will accompany an art exhibit at the Weber State University Story Telling Festival. 40 years ago a series of about 60 paintings were commissioned that showcased different episodes in the history of Ogden, Utah and its surrounding communities. The exhibit at this year's Story Telling Festival will display many of those paintings and include several videos that explain the history behind them.

"City of Corinne - Paddle Wheeler" by Charles A. Groberg. Courtesy of Weber State University and Bill Child.

I spent today at the Utah State Historical Society gathering archival photographs to include in the videos. Some of my favorite images were of a resort on the shoreline of the Great Salt Lake during the 1880s. The Garfield Resort was about two miles southwest of Black Rock, a large rock you can still reach off of Interstate 80. The resort was actually named after a steam boat, the "General Garfield," which was originally named "The City of Corinne" in 1871 and had been a freight vessel to ship lumber, ore and bullion between Ophir and Corinne, Utah. Over the years the ship was converted into an excursion boat that carried passengers along the eastern shore of the Great Salt Lake. Ultimately, the machinery inside the boat was removed in 1892 and it was outfitted as a hotel at the Garfield Resort. 

Here are a few photos of the ship, the resort and the painting by Charles A. Groberg. 

Images courtesy Utah State Historical Society.

Eugene Morris

Eugene Morris outside his home in Ogden, Utah (2013).

This past week my friend Eugene Morris passed away. Eugene was a Vietnam Veteran who I met ten years ago while producing a documentary called Street Vets that aired on PBS. At the time he was living at the Homeless Veterans Fellowship, a transitional living facility for homeless veterans. It was here that I followed Eugene and a handful of other veterans for a year as they worked to overcome addictions, post traumatic stress and other challenges that had led them to homelessness.

About a year after I'd finished shooting the documentary, Eugene called me one night and asked me to meet him at a homeless shelter. Rough times and a few poor decisions had put Eugene back on the streets. The Eugene I spoke with that night looked empty and scared. It was the lowest I'd seen him. However, as we talked, I could tell Eugene knew that wasn't where he belonged.

These last few years it has been amazing to watch Eugene change his life for the better. Eugene went through a drug rehab program in 2011 and hasn't used since. In addition he gave up drinking. And when there were concerns about cancer he also gave up smoking. Now stable, Eugene was able to rent a home in Ogden, Utah where he worked on his artwork, something he has always been passionate about. I have enjoyed visiting him every few months to photograph his new prints. It has been inspirational to watch someone who has hit rock bottom, struggle and work their hardest to rebuild themselves, find new dreams and make those dreams happen. 

Eugene Morris drawing out a sketch for a painting while living at the Homeless Veterans Fellowship (2007).

“I’ve met presidents and a lot of important people, but none that touched me more than this veteran.”

— Terry Schow, Former Director of the Utah Department of Veterans Affairs

Terry Schow, former Director of the Utah Department of Veteran's Affairs, and one of Eugene's best friends, organized a memorial service for Eugene this week at the American Legion Post in Ogden, Utah. Eugene has no surviving family, so it was a special experience to meet the small group of people who knew and loved him. 

Below I have included a few photographs from the memorial service. Above, you can view the Street Vets documentary that Eugene appeared in. The program was filmed in 2007 and aired on PBS in 2010.

Century 21 Everest Realty Group

For two years I've been able to assist Century 21 Everest Realty Group in their marketing and recruitment efforts. This December we launched a new recruitment video that includes interviews with Everest Agents in which they talk about the successes they have reached while working with Everest. It's a fun opportunity to go a little deeper into lives of these individuals and see how their work impacts their families and communities.

The Freedmen’s Bureau

This week I was able to travel to Washington, D.C. with Mormon Newsroom to document the completion of the Freedmen’s Bureau project by Family Search. A special event was held at the National Museum of African America History and Culture to recognized the work of 25,000 volunteers in the United States and Canada that uncovered the names of 1.7 million African American slaves.  

Through a year long online crowd sourcing project, volunteers indexed the records of the Freedman's Bureau, a government entity that was organized by congressional order in 1865. The Bureau created handwritten records of African American slaves at the end of the civil war. These records included marriage registers, hospital or patient registers, educational efforts, census lists and labor contracts. 

While these records have been available previously by the National Archives, the indexing project made the documents text searchable, allowing African American's to use the records to trace there genealogy. Prior to this, few African American's have been able to find family history records before 1870. It was a special experience to interview genealogists who expressed their gratitude for the project and what it has meant for them personally and their families.

The event was held at the new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.

Mormon Newsroom

This summer I began doing freelance work for Mormon Newsroom, which serves as the official news resource for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It's been a fun challenge to work in a news world where deadlines are very tight. This month we traveled to Manhattan to cover an event in which Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Elder Jeffrey R. Holland spoke. While there we created a news style piece for Mormon Newsroom and created a press release package that included downloadable photos, b-roll and SOTS (or interview comments) for media outlets. 

We are Spring!

Spring Mobile is America's largest wireless retailer with over 1400 AT&T stores. Last year, I was approached by their HR department about creating what they called an "employee culture video" which would share with current and future employees the Spring values.  

We began the project by interviewing a handful of employees who worked near the company's headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah. We got some good content, but felt the diversity and enthusiasm of Spring employees wasn't coming across as much as we'd like. So, using the Spring Mobile's Facebook page, we decided to send out a message to Spring employees nationwide and ask them to email us short cell phone videos where they talked about the Spring Mobile value they liked most. The response exceeded our expectations. We received over 250 submissions. Having the additional content added another level of authenticity and humor that we used to create this video.

Light of Grace: The Art of Anna Campbell Bliss

Every year, I have the opportunity to produce a short documentary for the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City, Utah. The film is a played at an annual Bishop's Dinner - a capital campaign event that raises funds for the Cathedral's upkeep and ministries. This year the dinner was given in honor of Anna Campbell Bliss, a Cathedral Parishioner and well known contemporary artist whose early use of computer programming in art brought her recognition both in Utah and the surrounding region. Bliss passed away in 2015 and we created this video to honor her and the contributions she made to the Cathedral of the Madeleine and the Salt Lake City art community. 

Make Your Dream Happen

This summer I was asked to produce a handful of TV ads for Weber State University. The ads are playing this month during the Olympics to Utah audiences. We took an authentic approach that showed the college experience of actual Weber State graduates. Below I've included two of the spots. 

Great Oaks from Small Acorns Grow: Walter Buss

This spring I completed a feature documentary for Weber State University. The film shares the history of the school through stories of its faculty, staff and students. One of the faculty members I enjoyed learning about was Walter Buss.

Buss taught Geology for many years at Weber State and was legendary for his "College on Wheels" bus tours. Outfitted with a chalkboard, projector and screen, the geology bus made its way past 5,000 miles of countryside and landmarks from Yellowstone to Los Angeles, and from Crater Lake to Glacier National Park. Students camped along the way and engaged in hands-on learning, on-site.

“I think one of the reasons why Walter was so passionate about taking students out into the field was, once you are there in the field, you can feel the pulse of the earth. You can look a photograph and the photograph can have a beautiful scene, but the only way you can have that is to be standing, observing, walking through these areas. That’s what Walter understood, the value of the world around us. ”

— Julie Rich

Great Oaks from Small Acorns Grow: Allen Holmes

This spring I completed a feature documentary for Weber State University. The film shares the history of the school through stories of its faculty, staff and students. One story shared the experience of Allen Holmes, an athlete who played on the mens basketball team from 1957-1959. During the 1958-59 season Holmes lead the team to an NJCCA National Championship. We were able to locate and interview several players from the team that year and include their comments in the film. 

Despite a great basketball season, Holmes (second from the left) faced difficult situations as the team travel across the Western United States. At times the team would need to stay in motels 40 miles away from their games because locations closer wouldn't allow entrance to African Americans. Holmes told me in his interview, his teammates supported him throughout this time. "If they wouldn't serve me, we all got up and left" he said.

Great Oaks from Small Acorns Grow: NUSAT 1

This spring I completed a feature documentary for Weber State University. The film shares the history of the school through stories of its faculty, staff and students. One of the stories I particularly enjoyed researching was about a satellite engineering faculty and students build and  launched in the 1980's. Here is a clip from the film that shares that story and the impact it had on the students of the time who worked on the project.

The construction of NUSAT was done in cooperation with Morton Thiokol and NASA, but all of the labor and parts were provided for free by Weber State College. Over 40 engineering students had the opportunity to with professors and industry professionals on satellite construction. One former professor told me the did save a "considerable amount of money by going to Radio Shack and buying the parts."

Richard Richards: A Conversation on Ethics

I recently completed a documentary on Richard Richards. Richards was Utah political organizer who became a major player in the Nixon and Reagan presidential campaigns and later went on to become the Chairman of the Republican National Committee during the Reagan years. The film was a collaborative effort with the Richard Richards Institute at Weber State University to showcase stories of good ethics in politics.

Producing the film provided an experience to learn about the behind scenes engine that drives state and national elections. Richards was involved with this effort at the grass roots level and his impact on both state and national elections is remarkable. 

Throughout his political years Richard's honesty and integrity was also just as impressive. One moment in his interview that I remember most came when he said:

“Look. When I’m here, I don’t care whether you like me or not. When I leave, I don’t care if you like me. All I care is when I leave, you say, ‘He was honest with me.’ I’m going to give you honest answers, tell you the best I can, and that’s the way it is. I’m not trying to win you over.”

— Richard Richards

That statement described Richards perfectly. You never had to second guess Richards. You always knew where he stood. Richard Richards passed away about a year ago, but I hope this film can be a lasting tribute to his example.