The Smithsonian Institution presents:

Saturday, July 28, 2001 at 12:00 noon

Carmichael Auditorium
National Museum of American History
14th and Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C.

Moderator: Marc Pachter, Director, National Portrait Gallery.


Allan Goodrich, Film Archivist, John F. Kennedy Library.

John Karol, Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker. Mr. Karol's current project, "Things of the Spirit," uses remastered nitrate film, original research and nationwide interviews to explore the personal and political life of Calvin Coolidge. A preview of his three-hour film was shown at the John F. Kennedy Library, and was featured at The American Presidency on Film, a national conference sponsored by the Film and History League last November.

Bruce Young and Jennifer Law Young, former news photographers turned Emmy Award-winning filmmaking team. They are at work on a documentary about White House Press photographers. A preview of their film, One Perfect Moment, was shown at a Smithsonian event in April.


Film has a vital role in shaping national memory. This is especially true for American Presidents, whose facility (or lack thereof) with the projection of image continues to challenge substance and reality in defining their place in history.

"Envisioning the Presidency" will focus on film's role in establishing, sustaining, and challenging a shared vision of the Presidency. If "seeing is believing," how do we transcend an often limited and obscured vision? How do producers find, select and use images to illustrate their stories? Is it possible for an American President to be granted an historical appeal from a sentence based on time-worn and often biased evidence? Can film change its mind -- or ours?

"Envisioning the Presidency" is part of the Smithsonian's ongoing exhibition, The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden, at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.


John Karol, Producer
Persistence Plus Productions
Main Street
Orford, New Hampshire 03777

Tel: . (603) 353-9067
Fax: (603) 353-4646