Bibliograph

Crisis., behind a presidential commitment, a film by Robert Drew ; produced by ABC News ; producer, Gregory Shuker ; Drew Associates, Fullscreen

Type

Label

Crisis., behind a presidential commitment, a film by Robert Drew ; produced by ABC News ; producer, Gregory Shuker ; Drew Associates, Fullscreen

Language

eng

Characteristic

videorecording

Main title

Crisis.

Oclc number

53466386

Responsibility statement

a film by Robert Drew ; produced by ABC News ; producer, Gregory Shuker ; Drew Associates

Runtime

Series statement

Robert Drew collection

Sub title

behind a presidential commitment

Summary

Having earned John F. Kennedy's trust with his 1960 campaign-trail film Primary, cinéma vérité documentarian Robert Drew expressed his desire to document a president in crisis. When African American college students Vivian Malone and James Hood prepared to enroll at the all-white University of Alabama in June 1963, governor George Wallace defied a federal court order and vowed to prevent the students' enrollment. Kennedy granted unprecedented access to Drew and his unobtrusive four-team crew, who used handheld cameras to cover both sides of the conflict: Wallace self-righteously clings to segregation, while a flurry of phone calls between the president, attorney general Robert F. Kennedy, and deputy attorney general Nicholas Katzenback reveal a tightly coordinated plan to dismiss Wallace (in Robert Kennedy's words) as "a second-rate figure." Special feature: Drew's short film Faces of November provides an examination of the meaning of John F. Kennedy's death to those at his funeral

Technique

live action

resource.variantTitle

Behind a presidential commitment

resource.version

Fullscreen

Classification