Category Archives: Documentary

Oh, for the gift to see ourselves …

One of the most helpful (and unnerving) aspects of the Summer Teaching Institute a few years ago was when Bob Baird videotaped each participant delivering a lecture, then played that lecture back for all of the Institute fellows to see.

Oh my …

Do I really leave most of my sentences incomplete? Do I really jump around with my topics like that? Is it the camera or that hideous jacket that makes me look so fat?

The video was a good catalyst for me to examine HOW I present material in the classroom. And I hope I’ve gotten better since then.

Meanwhile, I am one of the four subjects of film-maker David Licata’s latest documentary, “A Life’s Work.” David’s quest is to find out what drives the people who undertake mammoth tasks that they know they’ll never finish. My personal Herculian task is to digitize a copy of every piece of black gospel vinyl released between 1945 and 1970. To that end, I co-founded and help administer The Black Gospel Music Restoration Project here at Baylor University.

David filmed me while I conducting research in Chicago for my book on the influence of black sacred music on the Civil Rights Movement. Amid the interviews with gospel artists, Freedom Riders, activists and pastors, he caught me looking for rare gospel vinyl at a used record store in Hyde Park.

The documentary is probably still a year away from release, but he posted that three-minute clip on YouTube, if you’re interested:

Watching it, I had the same reaction: Oh my … again … when did I get so old (and chunky)? And worse, do I still ramble like that when I lecture?
So much of teaching IS the presentation. I can have great content and if I’m not engaging, compelling, interesting as someone who is conveying that information, then why should the students stay engaged?
The clip has made me aware — once again — that their attention is NOT a given. I have to earn it. I need to continually strive to have my words, demeanor, tone, even posture and body language match the enthusiasm I still feel for conveying what I believe is important, potentially life-changing information.
P.S. To see more of David’s work, check out
The photo above is image grab from an interview I’m doing with the Rev. Reuben Burton in Chicago.

Documentary

As some of you know, I’m one of the four subjects of an upcoming documentary by the brilliant film-maker, David Licata. The film is called “A Life’s Work” and is about people who are working on something that will continue long after they’re gone. In my case, it is the Black Gospel Music Restoration Project. There are features on someone who is working with the SETI project and another on a father/son team trying to save copies of the world’s old growth forest trees and still another on a guy who has been working on sustainable apartments — for decades.

It’s pretty august company. But David and his cameraman Wolfgang (a well-known cinematographer) spent a couple of days with Mary and I in Chicago while I was interviewing gospel artists, pastors and Freedom Riders from the Civil Rights era.

After a lifetime of interviewing other people, sometimes it is a bit unnerving to be interviewed at such length (and depth) yourself. It makes you articulate things about yourself that you’ve never expressed (or even thought about) in public. David was a wonderful, thoughtful interviewer. And, from time to time, while looking for insights, that’s exactly what happened.

My rambling notwithstanding, “A Life’s Work” is an excellent, intriguing, educational blog, too. I commend it to you.

And my wish for you all is that you’ll be interviewed for eight hours on camera someday …