“The Most Dangerous Producer in America” — Robert Richter — Gets a Career Tribute at DCTV’s Firehouse Cinema

By Michael Jacobsohn

I recently attended a retrospective of Robert Richter’s documentary films at DCTV, a venerable cultural media institution in Chinatown that has served New York’s independent film community for more than 50 years. Their latest venture is the Firehouse Cinema, a state-of-the-art screening venue dedicated to the craft of documentary filmmaking.

Before this timely tribute, I was unfamiliar with Robert Richter. My awareness of documentary filmmakers starts with Robert Flaherty, who is considered the father of documentaries, with his iconic film Nanook of the North, which was made in 1922. Then quickly my knowledge of documentary directors jumps to the 1960s with such filmmakers as D.A. Pennebaker, Frederick Wiseman, and the Maysles brothers. They mostly practiced “the fly on the wall” filmmaking technique. Discovering Richter was an awakening. About to turn 95, Richter’s contributions to the documentary world are vast. He began his producing and writing career in the 1950s at Edward Murrow and Fred Friendly’s CBS reporting unit. Feeling slighted for not being chosen to be part of the fledgling 60 Minutes team, he decided to leave CBS in 1968 with a determination to prove himself. Over more than 50 years, he was involved with over 90 documentaries, many of which he produced and directed.

The retrospective began with a program featuring three of his early shorts, all nominated for Academy Awards. The Gifts documents the exploitation of natural resources that our country faced in the 1960s—an ecological nightmare whose consequences we dearly pay for today. It is narrated with surprising gravitas by Lorne Greene, star of Bonanza, a popular TV Western of that era. It was followed by Gods of Metal, which highlights the nightmare of nuclear warfare from Hiroshima to the Cold War. Lastly, School of Assassins, narrated by Susan Sarandon, is an exposé of a U.S. Army-based school in Georgia that trained military personnel responsible for violence throughout Central and South America.

What stands out about Richter’s work is his commitment to engaged and well-researched journalism. He does not hold back on his strong point of view; he chooses a side and delivers a compelling narrative to support his convictions. Had he been chosen to join the 60 Minutes team, I suspect he would have excelled in their confrontational storytelling style. Next, I watched his full-length documentary Vietnam: An American Journey, which he produced, directed, and narrated. The first American journalist permitted to film in Vietnam after the war, he spent seven weeks in 1978 chronicling the newly unified nation. The film combines daily life footage, archival footage, and supervised interviews with Vietnamese. The highlight of the film is a nine-day drive down the length of Vietnam, starting from Hanoi and ending in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). This journey captures Vietnam’s efforts to re-educate former South Vietnamese fighters, prostitutes, drug addicts, and former middle-class merchants who made Saigon a haven for American soldiers. Watching the film today reminds me of the quagmire of the Vietnam War and subsequent unsuccessful conflicts that America has been involved with.

Following the screening, Richter participated in a lively Q&A session. He spoke about how The Gifts would be screened before feature films in theaters across the country and how having his films nominated for Academy Awards opened doors to wider audiences. In conjunction with the retrospective is the reissue of his book: Documentaries and Serendipity, which can be found on Amazon.

For me, the power of his films is his ability to foretell our future. His resolute, honest, and enlightened journalism is dedicated to raising our consciousness and to the advancement of a better world.

Richter’s retrospective at the Firehouse Cinema was made possible by the dedicated team at IndieCollect, a nonprofit run by Sandra Schulberg, the veteran indie producer who founded the IFP in 1979. Schulberg spoke at length to me about why IndieCollect has worked with key archive partners —Academy Film Archive, NARA, and the Briscoe Center at UT/Austin — to digitize the celluloid remnants of Richter’s groundbreaking documentaries. Because the negatives disappeared and surviving 16mm prints were in poor condition, they were unable to create high-quality restorations, but she is relieved that at least 10 films could be shown. Schulberg wants future audiences to experience Richter’s engaged journalism and laments only that additional funds must be raised to do justice to Richter’s muckraking works. Ultimately, IndieCollect’s mission is to get the restored films out to the public, which is extremely difficult. Unfortunately, there are very few screening venues left to share insightful documentaries. So the partnering with DCTV’s Firehouse Cinema was critical.

The Firehouse Cinema is housed in a landmarked former firehouse and uniquely screens only documentaries. It is part of DCTV’s ongoing work of championing independent films. Its founders are Jon Alpert and Keiko Tsuno. They began their venture with a desire to do social good and soon discovered that half-inch video cameras—considered “toy tape” by established 16mm documentarians—were valuable tools for creating award-winning documentaries screened worldwide. Throughout their careers, they have had productive relationships with PBS, NBC News, and HBO. These connections led to funding for their award-winning documentaries and also largely subsidized DCTV’s media outreach efforts.

Recently, Alpert shared with me that much of the funding for DCTV’s social justice films has dried up; unfortunately, what is being funded are true crime and celebrity-driven documentaries. This lack of funds has hurt DCTV’s ability to maintain resources for independent filmmakers. Presently, the single-screen Firehouse Cinema operates at a loss. Alpert is stoic about the shortfall of funds. He reminds himself that throughout the history of DCTV there have been financial challenges that they have overcome.

I encourage everyone to support DCTV and IndieCollect by attending film screenings, which allows filmmakers to share their documentaries on the large screen with a lively audience. Be on the lookout for future IndieCollect screenings of Richter’s poignant works and see for yourself why one of the pharmaceutical executives Richter profiled in For Export Only: Pills called him “the most dangerous producer in America.”

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Michael Jacobsohn is an active New York independent filmmaker. He curates a bi-monthly screening of short films by New York filmmakers at New Plaza Cinema.