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- [S24] article, New York Times, New York, NY, July 15, 2012, on page A22; also http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/arts/television/george-c-stoney-documentarian-dies-at-96.html.
George C. Stoney, a dean of American documentary film and a leader of the citizens movement that gave every American the right to a public-access television show of his or her own, died on Thursday at his home in Manhattan. He was 96.
His death was announced by his daughter, Louise Stoney.
Mr. Stoney, who taught filmmaking at New York University from 1970 until the last year of his life, was acclaimed in equal measure for his roles as a filmmaker, teacher and prophet of social change at the barrel of a camera.
Besides mentoring two generations of students, many of whom became prominent in the film industry, Mr. Stoney devoted himself to training community activists in the use of film as a tool for voiceless people. His role in the creation of public-access television was rooted in a hope that it would become an outlet for that kind of community-building documentary film.
His 50 documentaries included “Occupation,” about Canadian students who took over a McGill University building in 1970; “The Uprising of ’34” (1995), about the brutal legacy of a textile workers strike crushed by factory owners; and “All My Babies,” (1953), a film originally commissioned by the Georgia Department of Public Health to educate midwives working in poverty-stricken rural areas. It became a classic.
PhotoGeorge C. Stoney’s documentary “All My Babies” was added to the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry in 2002.CreditPhilip Pocock, Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
In filming “All My Babies,” Mr. Stoney, the son of a North Carolina preacher, met all the safe-practices requirements demanded by the health department. But in the hope of better transmitting the information to a largely illiterate audience, he recruited a 51-year-old midwife named Mary Coley to play the protagonist in a series of dramatic re-enactments. The movie, which includes a 15-minute sequence showing a live birth, was widely considered a propaganda masterpiece, in the best sense. It became a staple of medical school curriculums, and was distributed by Unesco and the World Health Organization.
In 2002 the film was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, a list that essentially defines the American film canon. It appears on the list alphabetically, between “All About Eve” and “All Quiet on the Western Front.”
Mr. Stoney had only recently joined the faculty of New York University’s film school in 1971 when he helped found the Alternate Media Center, a university project for training students and community members how to use video cameras, a technology that was new at the time. That project led to his interest in another newly emerging medium — cable television — and the opportunity its vastly expanded spectrum presented for grass-roots filmmaking.
With other media-savvy activists, including his Media Center co-founder, Red Burns, Mr. Stoney helped create the National Federation of Local Cable Programmers, which began lobbying industry and government regulatory agencies. If cable companies were going to put their cables beneath or above public streets, they argued, they should be required to give citizens a share of the new cable broadcast spectrum — public access. That requirement was added to federal communications law in 1984.
“There would be no public access if not for George Stoney,” said Rika Welsh, another early member of the cable programmers lobbying federation and a board member of Cambridge Community Television, the public-access operator in Boston. “He understood what it could be, and believed in its potential to bring communities together.”
PhotoCreditGS Films
In an interview several years ago (on a public-access show), Mr. Stoney said public-access television was not just about public access. “We look on cable as a way of encouraging public action, not just access,” he said. “It’s how people can get information to their neighbors, and their neighbors can get out on the streets to organize.”
In a separate interview, he said public access was never meant to “make anybody famous.” Its goal, in fact, was kind of the opposite: “To celebrate the ordinary things people do to help one another.”
George Cashel Stoney was born on July 1, 1916, in Winston-Salem, N.C., and worked his way through the University of North Carolina, earning degrees in English and history. He studied at Balliol College, Oxford, and received certification in film education at the University of London. He worked as a field research assistant in the South for civil rights groups in the 1940s, was a photo intelligence officer during World War II and afterward worked as a newspaper reporter. He made films for state government agencies before beginning his own film company.
In addition to his daughter, Louise, his survivors include a son, James; a sister, Elizabeth Segal; one granddaughter; and a great-granddaughter.
In one of his last interviews, he was asked if his “prime purpose in life now” was in the area of cable access or documentary filmmaking.
“Well,” he replied, “my prime concern now is my family and my friends. Politics is important. But my primary interest is in the people who are around me. I’m always a bit suspect when people lose their roots in their family and in their community.”
- [S231] Wikepedia, online [http://wikipedia.org ], https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_C._Stoney.
George Cashel Stoney (July 1, 1916 – July 12, 2012) was a documentary filmmaker, an educator, and the "father of public-access television". Among his films were All My Babies (1953), How the Myth Was Made (1979) and The Uprising of '34 (1995). All My Babies was entered into the National Film Registry in 2002. [1][2] Stoney's life and work were the subject of a Festschrift volume of the journal Wide Angle in 1999.[3]
George Cashel Stoney was born in 1916.[4] He studied English and History at the University of North Carolina and Balliol College in Oxford, and received a Film in Education Certificate from the University of London. He worked at the Henry Street Settlement House on the Lower East Side of NYC in 1938, as a field research assistant for Gunnar Myrdal and Ralph Bunche's project on Suffrage in the South in 1940, and as an information officer for the Farm Security Administration until he was drafted in 1942. Throughout this time he also wrote free-lance articles for many newspapers and magazines, including the Raleigh News and Observer and the Survey Graphic. He served as a photo intelligence officer in World War II. In 1946, he joined the Southern Educational Film Service as writer and director. He started his own production company in 1950, taught at Stanford University from 1965–67 and directed the Challenge for Change project, a socially active documentary production wing of the National Film Board of Canada from 1968-70.[5] With Red Burns, Stoney co-founded the Alternate Media Center in 1972, which trained citizens in the tools of video production for a brand new medium, Public-access television.[6] An early advocate of democratic media, Stoney is often cited as being the "father of public-access television".
Stoney made over 50 documentary films on wide ranging subjects. All My Babies, one of his first films, received numerous awards and was inducted into the National Film Registry in 2002.
Stoney was an active member of the Board of Directors for the Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN) and the Alliance for Community Media (ACM). Each year, the ACM presents "The George Stoney Award" to an organization or individual who has made an outstanding contribution to championing the growth and experience of humanistic community communications.
In 1971, Stoney became a professor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He was an emeritus professor there at this death. Stoney had been team-teaching a course with David Bagnall, his long-time film collaborator and former student.
He died peacefully at the age of 96 at his home in New York City.[1][7][8]
References[edit]
^ Jump up to:a b Vitello, Paul (July 14, 2012). "George C. Stoney, Documentary Filmmaker, Dies at 96". The New York Times.
Jump up^ "Local Public Access TV Under Attack From Trio of Congressional Bills". Democracy Now!. September 30, 2005.
Jump up^ Abrash, Barbara; Jackson, Lynne; Mertes, Cara, eds. (March 1999). "George Stoney Festschrift". Wide Angle 21 (2).
Jump up^ Alexander, Geoff (2012). "George C. Stoney". Academic Film Archive of North America.
Jump up^ Weldon, Carolyne (16 July 2012). "Tribute to Challenge for Change Director George C. Stoney". NFB.ca. National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 19 July 2012.
Jump up^ "History of ITP". New York University.
Jump up^ Announcement on the ACM Facebook page by board chair Deb Rogers
Jump up^ Posting to the ACM (non-public) listserv by Sue Buske, long time friend of George.
- [S278] Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. (NARA microfilm publication T625, Census Place: Winston-Salem Ward 4, Forsyth, North Carolina; Roll: T625_1298; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 103; Image: 357.
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1916 - 2012 (96 years)
[1, 2] 