Vanguard Documentaries & Charles Hobson

From issues that touch our lives today, such as U.S. diplomacy stratagem, to the aftermath of the civil rights movement and the birth of affirmative action, to the more profound journeys, such as studying how jazz music has helped to shape the cultural landscape of America. Our joy is to share these experiences with you, to collect and document footage of the events that have molded our civilization into what it is today.

Model U.N. for Everyone
Model U.N. For Everyone, produced for the United Nations Association of the USA, is an inspiring, energizing and informative look inside the world of Model U.N. at the high school and college levels. Filmed at real Model U.N. conferences, at U.N. Headquarters and at Model U.N. clubs, this unique film showcased the special excitement that is at the heart of the Model U.N. program. The film features Model U.N. students, faculty and parents as well as Secretary-General Kofi Annan and rarely seen U.N. archival footage.

Negroes with Guns looks at civil-rights era radical and controversial black activist Robert F. Williams, who pre-dated the Black Panther Party in his call to self-defense. Initially making local headlines for his involvement with the Monroe, North Carolina NAACP in the 1950's, he soon attracted national and international notoriety with his message of armed resistance to violence against blacks. His vow to "meet violence with violence" not only put him at odds with the Southern white power structure and the civil rights establishment, it also landed him on the FBI's most wanted list.

Also see a Variety Review on our 'highlights' page.
Negros with Guns premiered at Lincoln Center in March 2004.

Please visit The New York Times and read the article posted on February 7, 2006. Click here.

Porgy and Bess: An American Voice
The historic saga of George Gershwin's immortal American opera is traced from the publication of DuBose Heyward's novel PORGY in 1924, continuing on to the opera's premiere in 1935 and the many legendary productions that followed through the decades. Kitty Carlisle Hart, Francis Gershwin Godowsky, and scholars share their insights and memories. Narrated by Ruby Dee, this documentary features many cast members in interviews and performance clips, including Leontyne Price, William Warfield, Maya Angelou, Diahann Carroll, Grace Bumbry, and Willard White.

Harlem in Montmartre: Paris Jazz
In conjunction with Channel 13/WNET's Great Performances, Harlem in Montmartre: Paris Jazz explores the vibrant expatriate jazz community which formed among the hills of Montmartre, Paris between the Great Wars. Based on a book written by distinguished Berkeley anthropologist, (the late) William Shack, this film will not only examine the life and times of such notables as Josephine Baker, Sidney Bechet, Bricktop, Eugene Bullard, Langston Hughes, Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, and Django Reinhardt, but also the social, racial, and cultural implications of their rich and disparate experiences.

As the Harlem Renaissance sailed across the Atlantic and morphed into Le Tumult Noir, it became, not a black metropolis, but a concentration of itinerant musicians, with a frenzied night-club culture at its core. This Harlem-style jazz brought a gaiety and merriment which Europe was so desperate for; costumed, scantily-clad chorus girls delivering bawdy lyrics and furiously can-canning their way away from the brutality and bitter memories the Great War had left behind.

The film will repeat on February 7, 2010, at 10 P.M. E.S.T.
(check local listings for more information).

The John Baker Collection of the American Jazz Museum
Over five decades worth of raw footage, baring witness to the roll that jazz has played in shaping America’s cultural landscape. Lanquishing in obscurity for over twenty years, Vanguard Documentaries, with thanks to the NEA, is proud to have been given an opportunity to take part in documenting the process of recovery and restoration of vintage film.

Located in historic Smith & Vine, in Kansas City, MO, the American Jazz Museum is the leading jazz museum in the United States. Vanguard Documentaries is consultant and advisor on the John Baker Collection, one of the world’s largest jazz film archives.

Global Classrooms
Produced for the United Nations Association of the USA, this film explains the workings of Global Classrooms, a Model U.N. based program designed as a free-of-charge curriculum for under-served, urban school districts. Through featuring culminating Model U.N. conferences throughout the country, this film highlights the successes of UNA-USA in their quest to diversify the Model U.N. community and educate our next generation as global citizens.

Soundtrack to War:
We are working with director George Gittoes to secure North American distribution for this 90 minute documentary. A 30 minute version was shown on VH1 and reviewed in The New York Times.

The History of the Bicycle
We are developing a film project with one of the words leading authorities on this subject.

The World's Most Expensive Coffee:
The Jamacian Blue Mountain Coffee Story
An exciting new film from Vanguard Documentaries – Blue Mountain Gold – will capture an under-explored, little known side of the island of Jamaica.

The general image of Jamaica has been shaped by the visual vocabulary of the tourist industry and nightly news reports, a vocabulary too often limited to sea, sun, sand, drugs, crime, and poverty. Like all stereotypes, it both simplifies and overlooks a fascinating story, the story we want to tell in Blue Mountain Gold. This is an account of Blue Mountain coffee, the most expensive coffee in the world.

The prices alone are extraordinary. Blue Mountain can cost as much as a good bottle of Bordeaux – from $30 to $50 in the States, or 45 euros in Europe, and a breath-taking $70 to $118 in Japan. And the comparison is apt: just as France can boast of its wine, and Russia its caviar, Jamaican Blue Mountain is considered by connoisseurs to be the world’s best coffee.

But the cost itself is only part of the story. Blue Mountain Gold will describe how the legend developed around this legendary coffee – and uncover the truth that lies behind it. The film will also explore lush mountain slopes thousands of feet above sea level, to explain why the prices are so astonishing, and who are the individuals responsible for cultivating the coffee and ensuring its quality. Because in order to maintain a legend, controlling quality is of paramount importance.

An exacting, quasi-governmental Coffee Board carefully controls who can grow Blue Mountain coffee, who can roast it, who can export it, and who overseas can import it. With hard-won reputations and considerable profits at stake, it’s hardly surprising that there has been contention. What emerged from one battle was a new phenomenon, the Estate Coffee. This film will introduce some of the determined individualists who are attempting to upset a decades-old monopoly and produce an even more select version of the already elite Blue Mountain coffee.

The story of Blue Mountain coffee is as much as anything a story of disparate personalities, ingenuity, and human frailty. There are the Jamaicans and foreigners; farmers and importers; ordinary pickers and high-flying hoteliers. Part of the drama of the narrative emerges when the various interests collide and clash, although there are also instances of remarkable cooperation.

This film will show another angle of a world that many people think they already know – the easy-going islands of the Caribbean. Blue Mountain Gold draws on history, culture, business, and science to explore the roots of an international legend. Add to this a soundtrack of irresistible music, from reggae to modern dancehall, and the result is a highly compelling piece that will change the way viewers see coffee – and Jamaica – forever.

On Blue Mountain coffee:
“…there’s no coffee like it, and it’s worth every penny of the steep price.” – Condé Nast Traveler

“Coffee heaven in Jamaica. How good is it? Very good indeed!”
– Boston Globe

“It’s the connoisseur’s choice, with a sweet delicate taste that still affords a wallop of flavor.” – San Francisco Chronicle

“…the sweetest, smoothest coffee I had ever tasted.” – The Independent (U.K.)

“The stellar reputation of Blue Mountain coffee persists…the coffee’s rarity, its reputation, and its near-cult status in Japan make it the most expensive coffee in the world.” – The James Beard Foundation

“The Cubans say they produce the world’s best cigars, the Russians the best caviar and the French the best wine. Here, the claim is for the world’s best coffee, Jamaican Blue Mountain.” – L.A. Times

“Blue Mountain coffee. The most delicious coffee in the world.”
– James Bond

Stepin Fetchit
One of the most controversial African-American figures of all time, the actor Stepin Fetchit was the first black Hollywood movie star, as well known for his reckless, opulent lifestyle as for his "lazy trickster" comedy routine. A high-school dropout, he became the most famous African-American of his time before descending into poverty and obscurity in the 1950s, when his comedic style was deemed outdated and offensive. Stepin Fetchit died penniless and bitter in 1985, but his complex legacy remains: for many, his name has become synonymous with "Uncle Tom," while for others he is seen as a Hollywood pioneer. In fact, at various times in his life he associated with many of the most respected African-Americans of his time, including boxers Jack Johnson and Muhammad Ali.

Mel Watkins published a groundbreaking "biography" of Stepin Fetchit this fall, and extensive reviews have been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and several other major publications. Not surprisingly, the book has generated both praise for its thoroughness and insight and criticism for its sympathy towards a man considered by many to be a traitor to his race.

In working to create an accurate portrait of this enigmatic figure who simultaneously broke down barriers and propagated negative racial stereotypes, we will feature rare footage of Stepin Fetchit's performances and interviews with family members, friends, and colleagues. We will also feature an interview with People correspondent Champ Clark, whose book "Shuffling to Ignominy" is an intimate, compelling portrait of the man behind the performer.

Cisero Murphy
Cisero Murphy has been compared to Major League Baseball’s Jackie Robinson. Robinson broke through many racial barriers in sports, including the baseball color line. Murphy was the first and only African American ever to win either a World or U.S. national billiard title and was one of only two players in the history of pocket billiards to win a World title on his first attempt. He was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame in 1995. During the 1960’s and two decades later Murphy continued to place near the top in straight pool events and had a winning record in the 1983 BCA US Open 14.1 Championship. During his career, he has had high runs over 250 balls.

At age 15 Murphy was a high school dropout, at age 16 he won the New York City championship, and while in his twenties, he won the Eastern States 14.1 Championship six straight times. Because he was African American in an era when there were racial tensions in the United States, Murphy was not invited to compete in world title events until 1965 despite his skills as a player. Pool players picketed outside the front of the Commodore Hotel in Burbank, California, which was the site of the tournament, to protest Murphy's exclusion. He soon won the battle to compete the very next year. He triumphed convincingly, winning the Burbank World Invitational 14.1 tournament in 1965, defeating Luther Lassiter in the final.

In the Flatbush neighborhood of New York City, there is a mural painted of Cisero Murphy shooting pool, along with fellow New Yorkers and baseball players Joe DiMaggio and Mike Piazza.

The Apollo Theater Story
The Apollo Theater Story will explore the fascinating history and powerful legacy of one of America’s most iconic and enduring cultural institutions. From its inception as a black theater in 1934, the Apollo has probably exerted a greater influence on popular culture than any other entertainment venue in the world. The film will weave traditional documentary elements with the concert performances of a roster of young talent performing updated interpretations of some of the Apollo’s greatest hits—such as Beyonce doing Billie Holiday; Cassandra Wilson interpreting Sarah Vaughan; Wynton Marsalis and his band evoking Duke Ellington; Savion Glover tapping out a medley of great dance; Black Eyed Peas snapping fingers to Temptations Doo Wop; Usher channeling James Brown and Chris Rock mining decades of comedic brilliance. All these elements will combine to tell the long, deep story about how the Apollo changed the history of music and popular culture in America.

Director and Producers: Stanley Nelson, MacArthur Genius Fellow, widely regarded, as the preeminent African American documentary filmmaker of our age, will direct. Emmy-Winner Charles Hobson, will executive produce. Academy Award nominated filmmaker, Natalie Reuss will produce. Cactus Three will co-produce.

Jazzmobile
Founded in 1964 by Dr.Billy Taylor, Jazzmobile is a unique organization committed to bringing jazz to local New York communities. To celebrate the 45th anniversary of this landmark musical entity, we will speak with esteemed jazz musicians such as Jimmy Heath, Lou Donaldson, Benny Powell, Wynton Marsalis, Wycliffe Gordon, as well as present and former board members, including Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Darrell Gay, Hank Goldstein, and others.

Ragtime: From Sin to Symphony
From Sin to Symphony will give the real lowdown on how American popular music, from rag to rock, actually came to be – spotlighting the untold story of the music’s connection to the underworld of bordellos, speakeasies, honky tonks and its evolution into mainstream American entertainment.

The Energy of Money
The Energy of Money will be a 60 minute television special highlighting the work of Dr. Maria Nemeth and The Academy for Coaching Excellence. Dr. Nemeth’s teachings have been used world-wide to bring clarity, focus, ease and grace to our relationship with money.

The Flatiron: The New York Landmark and the
Incomparable City that Arose with it

I found myself agape, admiring a skyscraper – the prow of the Flatiron Building, to be particular, ploughing up through the traffic of Broadway and Fifth Avenue in the late-afternoon light.
– H.G. Wells (1906)

From its completion in 1902, the Flatiron Building became a symbol of turn-of-the-century New York, representing the changes that were about to make the city what it is today. Its unique architectural style captured the imagination of painters, photographers, and writers, and the building has become almost synonymous with New York itself.

It was designed by the Chicago architect, Daniel Burnham, and was commissioned by the Fuller Company. Because of its unusual shape, locals presumed it would eventually collapse, and they began referring to it as Burnham’s Folly. The Flatiron building’s architectural resilience and ability to withstand the particularly windy intersection of Broadway and 5th Avenue urged developers to build more skyscrapers, and so it had a hand to play in the construction of other New York icons, such as the Empire State Building.

The Flatiron Building at one time also housed a prominent restaurant and overlook deck where the intellectual elite of early twentieth century America came together, and in a sense, it was here that an American cultural renaissance took place.

The documentary will be based on the book The Flatiron: The New York Landmark and the Incomparable City that Arose with it by the historian Alice Sparberg Alexiou which will be published June 2010 by Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press.